That’s right its Toothache Day once again this year! Also known as The Day of the Dentist, or St. Apollonia Day.
Saint Apollonia was a Deaconess in Alexandria, Egypt. In 249 A.D. a mob attacked her and knocked her teeth out. The Egyptian government at that time gave a thumbs up to this group when they threatened to burn Apollonia to death unless she gave up being a Christian. Instead of recanting her belief in Jesus she threw herself into the fire and burned to death. She became the Patron Saint of toothaches and dentistry.
Wisconsin is a state that seems to have a festival or celebration for everything. We have a festival in honor of cow poop in Prairie du Sac, a festival for Russian space debris in Manitowoc, and a festival celebrating beef with a race called the Rump Roast 5K Run in Minocqua. The closest thing to a Toothache Festival in Wisconsin is in Burlington where a dentist sponsors a chocolate eating contest every year.
Where is the Wisconsin festival that celebrates Toothache Day?
One local event in honor of Toothache Day was found at St. Hugh of Lincoln in Milwaukee. They are having a mass in honor of St. Apollonia at 7 pm today. Other Catholic Churches in the area will probably have masses in honor of the toothache saint as well.
A very colorful and inspiring St. Apollonia Catholic celebration was held in New Haven, CT last year at St. Rose of Lima Church. Facebook has 56 photos of the event on the parish’s page and there was even a YouTube video of the event.
In hunting for any historical Toothache Day events a search was done of the Kenosha News for the February 9th editions 50, 75 and 100 years ago. No dental or toothache celebrations were found. The Catholic Churches had listings of masses but none honoring St. Apollonia in the microfilms searched in 1912, 1937 and 1962.
The Kenosha News had one listing for a dentist named Dr. N.P. Shearer oddly placed in the Local News on February 9th, 1912. On February 9, 1962 there was a story about a girl who swallowed a dental mirror who was awarded $2,500 by a dentist in New Jersey. Copies of these two stories are in the slide show attached to this article. There was nothing significantly dental in the Kenosha News on Feb 9th, 1937.
The Hispanic Dental Association started promoting “Dia del Dentista” (Day of the Dentist) in 2011. They seem to be trying to promote more widespread dental partying for the Patron Saint of toothaches.
Toothache Day Cakes were made by Pop.o.Licious Cake Pops for last year's Toothache Day. These cakes could be used in a town named Apollonia, in Rusk County Wisconsin for one giant Toothache Festival on February 9th each year. Tourists could come in for the big bonfire and watch the town reenact Saint Apollonia's death. It wouldn't hurt to do that along with an ice fishing derby and snow carving competition.
At the US Snow Sculpting Competition in Lake Geneva this past weekend the winning sculpture crashed when the temperature went into the 40 degree range. Apollonia is a little colder. Cold enough for an enormous tooth carved out of snow to make it through a weekend Toothache Festival. A toothache event would not be seen as abnormal compared to other types of festivals we have in our state. A Wisconsin festival for toothaches would be awesome!
More info:
Piero della Francesca’s famous painting of St. Apollonia was later copied in four different works by Andy Warhol.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amh14btSYoI
The best video explaining St. Apollonia: http://youtu.be/f-kTXWSlHOY
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