ひな祭り - Doll Festival

March 3rd is the modern-day date picked to celebrate ひな祭り, or the Doll Festival, which is celebrated specifically by families with daughters, usually young daughters. Yesterday I celebrated at my friend Yuya's house. Yuya is eighteen; however, she is the only daughter out of four children in the Nishiguchi household. Therefore, her family probably loves to honor her each year by celebrating the ひな祭り.

Decorations for the festival can get pretty elaborate. There will typically be a shelf set up in one corner of a room in the house (big shelves, like the one at the Nishiguchi household, can be up to five tiers high, like a staircase). The shelf is covered in red cloth, and usually anywhere from ten to twenty dolls, both boy dolls and girl dolls, are placed upon the shelf. The dolls are all adorned in traditional kimono and clothing and hats, but when people celebrate this festival, they themselves usually wear western style clothing as opposed to traditional Japanese clothing. The dolls are supposed to be put away soon after the holiday ends; it is said that if you delay in cleaning up and storing the dolls away, your daughter's marriage will be delayed. I had two little dolls hanging in my room as decorations, and I made sure to put them away this morning before I went to school!

I learned of two foods that are normally eaten during this holiday. One is a special type of sushi that involves a huge container filled with sushi rice and then different types of raw fish, vegetables, egg, and other toppings piled on top of the rice in a colorful, artful design. Raw fish is still expensive and I'd say somewhat of a delicacy in Japan, so it makes sense to eat this sort of dish when celebrating a festival. The other food I learned of is a snack called hina-arare. These are cruchy little balls made of rice flour. They are colored green, pink, white, and brown, and they normally have a salty flavor. Lately, however, Japan has started making these snacks with both sweet and salty flavors mixed into the package, and some of the balls are even covered in chocolate.

In ancient times, this holiday was celebrated on April 3rd, when the weather is warm. Okaasan said it's difficult to unpack the dolls at the beginning of March when the closet and room they're stored in are cold, so in keeping with the ancient tradition, my host family celebrates this holiday on April 3rd instead of March 3rd. This means that I am lucky enough to get to celebrate this holiday twice this year!!!