Everyone knows that when a child loses one of their baby teeth they should leave it under their pillow were the tooth fairy will replace it with money. But what few people know is that this seemingly innocuous tradition actually has its roots in witchcraft, walking the earth as the undead and all that good stuff.
Not So Jolly Ole' England
Perhaps the oldest tradition dates back to England in the Middle Ages where it was believed that if a child's tooth fell out, that child must drop it into a fire to avoid having to look for it after they died. The addition of fire into the story undoubtedly conjured up images of witchcraft to superstitious Englanders during the Middle Ages so not surprisingly, suspected witches were often burned because people believed money appeared after they threw articles into fire. When a witch burned a piece of hair, clothing or teeth from a person, she supposedly obtained power over them. Parents may have prompted children into keeping teeth or burning the teeth themselves in order to keep themselves free of demon possession.
Additional Histories
Many European cultures had folklore surrounding the loss of a child's baby teeth (a.k.a. milk teeth) which usually happens between the ages of 5 and 7 years. Some cultures placed the tooth in a tree or threw it to the sun. Other rituals involved having an adult swallow the tooth or burn it. For instance, the Vikings had a ritual which they called the "tooth fee" whereby a small gift was given to a child when its first tooth appeared.
One Final Question
However, the one question that no tooth fairy history, myth or tradition ever answered is what the tooth fairy did with the teeth once they took exchanged it for money.
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