Hinamatsuri

[Stan Sakai]

I know I'm a week early, but I'll be in New York during Hinamatsuri. Dolls' Day is celebrated on March 3. This is the time to pray for a girl's growth and happiness. It began as a Chinese custom of transferring the sins of the body into that of a doll's, and floating it down a river. The big tradition during the Japanese festival is the displays of dolls dressed like the Heian court seated on platforms covered with red cloth. The top tier seats the Emperor and Emporess. Lower tiers holds court ladies, musicians, nobles, and servants.

This also used to be known as Girls' Day. Boys' Day (May 5) was changed to Children's Day (Kodomo no Hi) to celebrate both sexes, and became a national holiday.

When Sharon and I were in Tokyo, we visited the Doll District. This was in February of 1998, just before the festival. We saw huge displays of dolls, the most memorable was about a hundred piece set of Snoopy and Woodstock dressed as Japanese nobility, musicians, ladies in waiting, etc.

[Thomas Froehling]

Thank you for the info; as a father of two lovely daughters I am more than eager to know anything that could prevent any harm to them...

When will we see a Usagi story about it, then? March next year would be nice...