Viva Girls! - Nao

Happy Hina Matsuri Day!

Hina Matsuri is the day we celebrate Girls in Japan. This celebration started out as girls just playing with dolls hundreds of years ago. The girls back then played with dolls just like the young kids play with Barbie dolls nowadays. I guess girls back then aren’t that different from girls now. Well, I played with toy cars and airplanes when I was a kid, and when I played with Barbie dolls, it was when I would take them away from my little sister and cut their hair. Yeah, I was in trouble every time I did that. Ha ha. Anyway, March is the beginning of spring in Japan, and there are peach tree blossoms everywhere over there. So, Japanese people began to combine the celebration for girls and peach tree blossoms eventually. This became “Hina Matsuri”. We would decorate our houses with Hina dolls, which are believed to take all the bad luck away from the house. They are beautiful and very detailed. There is a belief about these Hina dolls. If a family doesn’t put the Hina dolls away by the end of March, the girls in the household will marry really late in life. So the mothers of the girls usually put these dolls away before March ends. I think it is very interesting how girls playing with dolls hundreds of years ago, has now become a celebration of girls and Spring. It is also interesting how there is a connection with the dolls and when a girl will get married. I have no idea where the idea originally came from though.

Anyways, boys, don’t worry, we have a cerebration for boys in May as well. Hina Marsuri is not a holiday, but Boy’s Day is. Why? Because May has better weather than March does. A very interesting way of deciding when to celebrate a holiday, huh?

Alrighty, have a wonderful Hina Matsuri… and be nice to girls out there! he he

Hugs,
Nao