Girls’ Day 2019

Today Japan celebrates “Girls Day” or Hinamatsuri (雛祭り), a springtime tradition also known as “Doll’s Festival.” This is a day to wish for the health and happiness of young girls, traditionally marked with a set of dolls and serving special foods such as chirashi sushi.

Many Japanese families begin collecting a set of dolls as soon as a girl is born. Starting in February, the dolls are dressed in elaborate costumes and displayed on special red-carpeted platforms with golden backdrops and various accessories. The tiny figurines represent the emperor, empress, musicians, and court attendants dating back to Japan’s Heian period (794–1185). Some doll sets are especially luxurious, becoming family heirlooms passed from generation to generation.

Another name for the festival is Momo no Sekku (桃の節句), the festival of peach blossoms. An offering of sweet fermented rice wine—shirozake or nonalcoholic amazake—is placed on the doll stand along with peach blossoms and hishi mochi, diamond-shaped rice cakes colored white, green, and pink to represent snow, new growth, and peach flowers.

After the festival, many families set paper dolls sailing down rivers as a way to rid their daughters of bad luck, a practice called Nagashibina (literally “doll floating”) that dates back many centuries. On the third day of the third month on the old lunar calendar, small dolls made of straw are floated out to sea as a way of carrying “pollution” away from beloved daughters.

Happy Hinamatsuri 2019!

03.03.2019-Sunday-ஞாயிறு-Doodle-Girls’ Day 2019-JPEG