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Fairy tales are a way for adults to experience afresh, vicariously, some of the awe and wonder of the magical thinking they had in childhood. There's something wonderful about magical thinking, that stretches our imaginations and encourages creativity. As we confront the harsh realities of adulthood, most people lose that capacity for magical thinking. I think that's a sad thing. There's so much joy and hope to be found in magical thinking. It's an approach toward life that says, "just maybe this could be." And perhaps, when we believe enough that something could be, it might just happen. Isn't that what reality-creation is about? Believing, and so creating a new reality? Look at the wonder of Disney World, springing from the magical imagination of Walt Disney. Look at the joy that has brought to so many people-- and all the other benefits connected to a successful business.

Maybe in sharing fairy tales, and seeing the wide-open wonder in our children's eyes, we recover some of that wonder ourselves. Yes, Virginia, fairy tales are real. :-)

While is possible that some of the stories may be loosely based on real people or actual occurrences, the tales themselves are almost certainly fictional.

Like all significant literature, fairy tales have societal functions in oral and literary tradition. Fairy tales examine the human condition, provide a source of entertainment, and often contain a moral message. They are not always designed for children; the Grimm fairy tales were actually more adult-oriented before they were rewritten (by another author) to be children-friendly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_tale

Fairy tales and stories about magic - I regard them as another way to teach belief in the possibility of miracles in life and about our own power.

They are also about how we learn to navigate through life. Clarissa Pinkola Estes is a storyteller (cantadora) and psychiatrist extraordinary. She wrote a book called The Women who Run with The Wolves which analyses some stories as they relate to how people pass down tales about the phases of life that we pass through. (The original 1982 book is brilliant!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarissa_Pinkola_Estés

Fairy stories are not originally for children as such - but have been "Disneyfied" or the equivalent through the ages for children. I have seen somewhere someone say Cinderella is about the nature of alchemy and transformation, the changing of one thing into another, but I can't remember where..

This tells of the origins of Cinderella:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella

Bluebeard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard

Fairy tales are myths, which are best interpreted in a symbolic way. They try to teach us about how archetypes function in us and how we should learn life lessons, which will help us in our life.

no doubt they were not written for their dead letter,
imagine a simile on which profound center of truth
the authors choose to elaborate,
an intentional veiling of a message?

i will simply say that everything as some truth in it even fairy tales. and if you look at myth those add hiden information i have read 20 years ago that some groups or order used myth to code some teaching. and some myth are based on true legend. i do not remember what group it was or what legend they say the code where in. but it is food for thoughs.

http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/