Shiho

Hinamatsuri －Japanese Traditional Doll’s Festival－

Have you heard one of Japanese annual event “Doll’s Festival”? We called this event “Hinamatsuri” in Japanese. This event is held on March 3^rd and most people who have girls in their house celebrate and pray for the healthy growth for girls. We have some festivals for celebrating age or growth in Japan, especially the Doll’s Festival is known that Hina-Ningyou, which is traditional doll in Japan, is displayed in house. Today, I’m going to share about the Doll’s Festival called “Hinamatsuri”

First, when did the Doll’s Festival start? It started about 1000 years ago, but it isn’t clear when it started exactly. At first, the Doll’s Festival was started for praying happy beginning of the year without trouble or bad luck. Moreover, now, many people who have girls in their family generally display dolls, but long time ago, people threw paper dolls into the river and ocean. It came from Chinese habit which is moving bad luck to dolls made of weed or straw, and throw them into the river on March. Furthermore, at that time in Japan, playing paper dolls was popular among noblewomen, which was rich women. Then, Chinese habit combined with this play, and throwing dolls into the river started. After that, in the Edo period, the skill of making dolls was improved and the habit was changed to display dolls instead of to throw into rives, and Ed Shognate, which was a government in Ed period, decided to make Doll’s Festival Day on March 3^rd.

Second, what do Japanese people do for the Doll’s Festival now? Most people who has girls in their family display dolls called “Hina-Ningyou” and peach blossom. As I introduced before, displaying dolls means getting rid of bad luck, so usually we display them at least the middle of February, not one day. Furthermore, it seemed peach blossom had a power of charm or longevity, so we display it. Moreover, in Chinese habit, people thought peach blossom was important, and drank alcohol put peach blossom in it. Another things we do for the Doll’s Festival is eating traditional foods like rice cake cubes (Hina-arare), diamond-shaped rice cakes (Hishi-moch) and scrattered sushi (Chirashi-zushi).

Lastly, I will introduce about the doll called Hina-Ningyou. This doll are consist of the emperor, the empress, three court ladies, five court musicians, the minister of the left, the minister of the right and three servants. However, most house are too small to display this type of doll, so they display only the emperor, the empress and three court ladies.

In conclusion, Japanese people celebrate and pray the healthy growth for girls on March 3^rd, and we enjoy displaying the doll and eating traditional foods. Even though Hina-ningyou isn’t cheap, most people have traditional Hina-ningyou for girls. Therefore, this event is important for Japanese people and continue until now. Thank you for reading.