"Today is the Joyful Doll Festival"

Happy Girls' Day! March third is a day of celebration for girls in Japan known as "Hinamatsuri" (Doll Festival), "Momo no Sekku" (Peach Blossom Festival), or simply "Girls' Day". It is a day for families to celebrate with their young daughters and pray for their future health and happiness (i.e. marriage).

When a new girl is born into the family, grandparents or other relatives will give her a set of dolls. These dolls are not played with, but are displayed on Girls' Day. A detailed description of the dolls can be found here. There is another tradition associated with dolls in which men, women, and children transfer their ill fortunes to paper dolls before casting them into local rivers and streams, allowing the currents to bear the evil away.

The association with peach blossoms comes from the lunar calendar in which March third marked the coming of spring and blooming flowers. (In today's solar calendar this doesn't happen until April.) Peach blossoms also symbolize a happy marriage as they signify the feminine traits of gentility, composure and tranquility.

For little girls who are not concerned with marriage and ill fortune, however, Girls' Day is a day to enjoy the many Japanese style confectioneries, or wagashi, that are available during this time. I decided to treat myself to some of these this year, but was extremely disappointed by the prices. In particular, I had wanted to buy a wagashi that is probably pure sugar because it melts the instant it touches your tongue. I have been given many of these over the years but never did I fully appreciate them until I tried to buy some for myself and found that a box with the equivalent of 5 sugar cubes in it costs about $6. So I passed on those and got myself a variety pack (as seen in the picture above) which has miniature gummy versions of popular wagashi. You may notice that the candies seem to be colored mostly in red (pink), white, and green. The red is for chasing away evil spirits, the white is for purity, and the green is for health.

In addition to enjoying expensive, colored sugar cubes, girls may also find themselves humming this festive song set to this dark tune.

あかりをつけましょ　ぼんぼりに
Let’s light the lanterns [on the doll stage]

おはなをあげましょ　もものはな
Let’s offer flowers - peach blossoms

ごにんばやしの　ふえたいこ
Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums

きょうはたのしい　ひなまつり
Today is the joyful Doll Festival

As an interesting side note . . . Girls' Day is not a national holiday, but Boys' Day (in May) is.