Posted by Jess
3 March 2011
Today is Doll Day in Japan. It's called Hinamatsuri in Japan and celebrates girls! Little platforms are set up and covered with red carpet called hina dan and are used to display sets of ornamental dolls that are dressed up in traditional Japanese dress. The displays can have up to 7 tiers with dolls representing the emperor, empress and people of the court. The highest level is reserved for the emperor and the empress and the placement of the other dolls indicates their role in the court as well.
Here is the small display that is in our apartment building lobby.
The tradition started in the Heian period, which was from 794 to 1185AD. The people then thought that dolls could contain bad spirits, so they took dolls like these and put them on boats. When they floated them out to sea, they felt that the bad spirits went with the dolls. Today certain shrines still do this tradition and pray for the safety of children.
My boss brought the girls some customary treats like hishimochi, a rice cookie.
Google even got in on the action today. I'm not sure if this was the home page doodle back in the States, but at least here I found this:
Some pictures of the girls and their treats:
Jason stopped and picked up special cakes for dessert on the way home and made pancakes for dinner. A special day for the girls for sure!
Tomorrow the dolls will be taken down - leaving them out past March 3rd is superstitiously believed to cause your daughter to have a late marriage.
Boys have a similar day, formerly called Tango No Sekku on May 5th which has since become a National Holiday called Children's Day - more on that when the day comes!
Kanpai!
Jess
3 March 2011
Today is Doll Day in Japan. It's called Hinamatsuri in Japan and celebrates girls! Little platforms are set up and covered with red carpet called hina dan and are used to display sets of ornamental dolls that are dressed up in traditional Japanese dress. The displays can have up to 7 tiers with dolls representing the emperor, empress and people of the court. The highest level is reserved for the emperor and the empress and the placement of the other dolls indicates their role in the court as well.
Here is the small display that is in our apartment building lobby.
The tradition started in the Heian period, which was from 794 to 1185AD. The people then thought that dolls could contain bad spirits, so they took dolls like these and put them on boats. When they floated them out to sea, they felt that the bad spirits went with the dolls. Today certain shrines still do this tradition and pray for the safety of children.
My boss brought the girls some customary treats like hishimochi, a rice cookie.
Google even got in on the action today. I'm not sure if this was the home page doodle back in the States, but at least here I found this:
Some pictures of the girls and their treats:
Jason stopped and picked up special cakes for dessert on the way home and made pancakes for dinner. A special day for the girls for sure!
Tomorrow the dolls will be taken down - leaving them out past March 3rd is superstitiously believed to cause your daughter to have a late marriage.
Boys have a similar day, formerly called Tango No Sekku on May 5th which has since become a National Holiday called Children's Day - more on that when the day comes!
Kanpai!
Jess
5:52 AM |
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1 comments
Comments (1)
Those desserts look pretty yummy!! Sounds like a fun day for the girls!