Milk Tooth Box and Hair Lock (halaqa) from the Maghreb

Small container preserving the first lock of hair cut during the first cutting (halaqa) of a young boy, sometimes celebrated at Lag ba-Omer or near a saint. In the Maghreb, milk teeth were also kept there as a protective superstition. Decorated with filigree or hamsas, the object belonged to the rites of passage of early childhood.