Madeleine Dillerstone on Girl’s Day in Japan March 3, 2009

Maddy learned to celebrate Girls Day (The Japanese Doll Festival (雛祭り) in Japan on this date. The day also celebrates the coming of spring. Platforms with a red hi-mōsen are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形 ,hina-ningyō?) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. “,”Hina-Matsuri” (Doll’s Festival) or “Momo-no-Sekku” (Peach blossom’s Festival) which used to be one of the important seasonal events of ancient China and has now developed into a function symbolic of Japanese arts and customs and has been in existence in Japan since the Edo Period (17 – 19 centuries). Momo-no-Sekku used to be held on the 3rd of March according to the Lunar Calendar, though today it is actually not until early April that the peach blossoms begin to bloom, and that is how the name of this festival came about. On this day families with young daughters celebrate this event at home to ensure their daughter’s future happiness. That is, they decorate hina-Ningyo (special, beautiful dolls which are replicas of an ancient emperor and empress and their subordinates). The dolls are not the everyday dolls usually played with but are ceremonial dolls, a heritage of the household, handed down, many of them, from generation to generation. They are displayed for a few days in the best room of the house at this festival time, after which they are carefully boxed and put away until the next year. Parents who are able to do so …