Hina Matsuri, aka Doll's Festival, aka Girls Day

The third of March is Girl's Day in Japan, or Hina Matsuri, also known as the Doll's Festival.

Stores have had adorable pink princess themed things for the month leading up to Hina Matsuri, so it's been just great for me!

Leading up to Hina Matsuri, families and shops display collections of dolls shaped like members of the old Imperial family. These are said to ward off bad spritis, and bring good luck. These dolls are usually displayed on a red fabric, usually on a stair-like little stage. They kind of like Christmas trees in that they're usually set up about a month or so before the event, and stay up on display until the day.

Jason and I had actually received a free paper Hina Matsuri display from Lawson, so we set ours up a few weeks ago. 
















On Hina Matsuri, Jason and I simply couldn't resist purchasing a pair of adorable Hina Matsuri cakes. They were small matching cakes, one was chocolate with a prince on top, and the other was vanilla with a princess on top. The vanilla princess one was filled with peach pieces and sweet cream, while the prince one was filled with chocolate cream and shaved chocolate.

Peaches, plums and cherry blossoms play a big role in Hina Matsuri, and many of the Hina Matsuri foods featured peach flavoured things or cherry blossoms. So we ate our cakes and had a picnic under the beautiful plum blossoms at a nearby park.

 

We also of course, had to try the traditional Hina Matsuri foods!

One of the most significant Hina Matsuri foods is Hisamochi. Hishimochi is a three-coloured mochi slab, in pink white and green. The pink is to represent peach or plum blossoms, the white represents snow (purity) and the green represents nature (or growth). People eat this mochi and pray for the health and well-being of girls in their life.

 

It was quite hard to eat, as it was very rubbery, hard to put a fork through. Maybe that's just because we got  cheap grocery shop one and not fresh? I'm not sure... But the taste was just milkdly sweet. Not unpleasant, but definitely not something I'd be buying each year haha...

 

The next Hina Matsuri food we ate is called arare. Arare is small ball shaped rice cracker, often also coming in the colours of pink white and green. These were delicious! The coloured balls were sweet, while the white ones were savoury.

 



 

In the old days, towns would actually send dolls out to sea on small boats (taking the bad spirits with them) but this practice is rare nowadays and Jason and I couldn't find a ceremony near us so we spent the rest of the day viewing the beautiful blossoms, and treating me like a princess (so same as most days I guess). After all, princesses are what the day is for!

 

At the end of the day, we made sure to take down all of our hina matsuri decorations. If you leave them up past the day of the event, legend says that your daughters won't be able to get married! So for your daughter's sake, everyone is careful to remove decorations as soon as Hina Matsuri is over.