A baby tooth for a bird

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A baby tooth for a bird

Here’s this week’s tip on Korean language and customs:

Q:
My five-year-old son, who has been attending a Korean school this summer, has learned not only the language but also picked up some local culture. According to my son, when young Korean children lose a baby tooth, they are taught to throw it out on the roof so that a bird can take it. I’m curious what that means to Korean children and parents.

A:
Fear about losing baby teeth is common among children around the world.

To soothe fearful children and to teach the importance of maintaining healthy teeth for life, Korean parents used to hold a small event for their child each time one of his or her baby teethneeded to be extracted.

The parents pulled out the loose tooth by attaching a cotton thread to it. Once the tooth was extracted, the child was asked to throw it out onto the roof while singing a rhyme to a magpie.

Korean folklore says that the magpie brings good fortune. Thus the bird is a Korean version of the tooth fairy of the West that takes the baby’s tooth and brings the child money.

Young, Westernized parents in Korea today find the local custom unsanitary, so there has been a increasing number of parents who take their child to a dental clinic to have the tooth extracted.
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