March 3rd is Doll Festival (雛祭り, hina matsuri) in Japan, usually called Girl's Day in English!
Doll Festival? Girl's Day? What the what...?
Let's jump in and take a look at what the day is, how it is celebrated, and a small bit of history.
Girl's Day doll display
Girl's Day
On this day in Japan you will see elegant displays of dolls everywhere: in homes, in stores, in some temples and shrines, and in many other locations as well.
Actually these have been on display all month. But this is the actual day of the festival.
The basic idea is this is a day of celebration for girls, and this is shown by the dolls. These dolls are typically very expensive. Usually they are passed down in the family, but if a new set is needed, the maternal grandparents are expected to foot the bill if they can.
Traditionally they would only be displayed in homes with girls ten or under, but these days many people go right on displaying them even after their daughter grows older than ten. I'm told some couples who don't have girls still display the wife's old dolls as a way of celebrating the day.
A full set looks like so:
Looks like pretty much everything
There are six or seven tiers to the platform (the exact amount varies by region). The first tier is the most important. It houses Odairi-sama (御内裏様) and Ohina-sama (御雛様). In English these are often referred to as the Emperor and Empress.
The other tiers hold various other courtiers and ministers.
They really are interesting to see, and we do see them everywhere.
The Emperor and Empress
History
The day started long ago as a day of ritual cleansing, called Festival of the Snake (上巳の節句, jōshi no sekku), so named because it was held the first day of the month of the snake (the third month).
On this day the imperial court and other aristocrats would cleanse themselves with crude human-shaped figures. They'd wipe their bodies down with these figures, taking all bad energy and karma and putting it into the doll, then they'd float these dolls the river and off into the ocean.
Around the late Nara period or early Heian period, the day of the event was moved to the third day of the month and the name changed to Kyokusui no En (曲水の宴), literally "Drinking Around a Rolling Stream".
The cleansing ritual stayed, but a game was added. People would stand at various places along a bending stream, which was a common feature of gardens at the time. A bowl of sake would be floated down the stream. The participant had to compose and recite a poem before the bowl reached them. Then they would drink down the sake, refill the bowl, and float it to the next person.
A more elegant game, for a more civilised time
By the 16th or 17th century, these traditions finally started to filter down to the common people.
At that point, common people would allow their children to sleep with the dolls, letting the dolls draw out all bad energy as their kids slept, then they would cast off the dolls the next day as usual. Slowly over the years, the dolls started being more and more decorated, and eventually people stopped throwing them away the next day. You can see it's only a small jump from there to today where the dolls are treasured and celebrated.
There may still be at least one holdover superstition from the previous customs. It is said that after the day is over, you must immediately put the dolls away or the girls of the house will get bad luck and will marry late in life or not at all. But even this superstition is dying a slow death these days and I think it's safe to say most people don't pay much attention to it.
That would be around $1,100. And this isn't even one of the more expensive ones.
Calendar Woes
The date for Girl's Day is the 3rd day of the 3rd month, but this originally referred to the Lunar or Chinese calendar, which Japan followed before 1868. The Lunar calendar is about a month behind the Gregorian calendar, making the original date of the festival around the start of April. In fact, the date was traditionally known as Peach Festival (桃の節句, Momo no Sekku), as the peach blossoms typically begin round this time.
When Japan switched to the Gregorian calendar, most special dates they simply moved to be on the same date on the new calendar, making them about a month earlier than they previously were held. But some places insist on celebrating special days on what would have been the old day, making them now a month later.
Are you confused yet?
At least for Girl's Day, most places in Japan celebrate Girl's Day on March 3rd, but a few places insist on celebrating it around the start of April, which would have been the third day of the third month on the old calendar.
This really doesn't matter too much for us, but it does make displays of peach blossoms and references to Peach festival a bit confusing since the flower won't bloom for another few weeks. I've been told there is a company in Tokyo that decided to tackle this problem and produces a genetically engineered peach tree that does in fact bloom at this time! Capitalism at work, I suppose!
Misc Other things
There is a traditional song that is being played to death right now, in stores and supermarkets, on TV and elsewhere. It is kind of catchy—see what you think:
By the way, remember that drinking game? Some places in Japan still reënact it, either on Girl's Day itself or in April on what would have been the original day (see Calendar Woes above). Here's an interesting video showing one of these reënactments. This is a little different from how I've read about it and seen it in other places, but interesting all the same.
So there we go. Now you know enough about Girl's Day to be dangerous. All in all, it is a nice day to enjoy!
- Ukiyo-e Print 1 - "Doll Festival", by Kotozuka Eiichi
- Photo 1 - Full Set, by Jennifer Pack, licensed under the Creative Commons 2.0
- Photo 2 - "Emperor and Empress" by coniferconifer, licensed under the Creative Commons 2.0
- Photo 3 - Expensive set, by Shibuya246, licensed under the Creative Commons 2.0
- Ukiyo-e print 2 - "Heian Courtiers Floating Fortunes in Sake Cups Down Stream" by Hokusai
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| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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