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Doll Festival （Hina-matsuri)

A pair of doll is set up for the Doll Festival(Momo-no-Sekku) on March 3 where the girl(s) is(are) in home. It is so-called "Hina-matsuri", i.e. Doll Festival for girls. While March 3 is the Girls' Festival, May 5 is famous as the Boys' festival when warrior doll or armor(Kabuto) is set up for. Each is one of the 5 seasonal festivals in ancient time in Japan. Seasonal Festivals means "lustration" and "apotropaism".

In the old time, the dolls at the Festival were forms of human being. It had been made of paper, straw, clay and so on. People believed to move their desease, bad luck, evil into dolls and threw them in effigy into a river. This custom, so called"nagashi-bina" still remains in Tottori or Kyoto Prefecture.

Incidentally, the recent dolls(sitting and wearing beautiful kimono) are called as "Odairi-sama" and "Ohina-sama". Both are featured Emperor and Empress. This style had begun in Edo era.

Nowadays the Doll Festival is one of the seasonal events for people to wish childrens' healthy growth. March is the beginning of spring season in Japan, so flowers of peach tree is decorated at the Festival. People enjoy several kinds of foods like "chirashi-zushi", "sakura-mochi", "hishi-mochi", "hina-arare"...etc. at the Festival.

By the way, after the Doll Festival, people are used to make short work of
Ohina-sama(the dolls) within 3 days. Legend has it that girls would marriage later without making short work of the dolls.

My mother says that the reason why I marriage later was because she did not do short work:-p