If you're in Japan right now, swing through your nearest department store! Displays for Hinamatsuri- literally translated as Dolls' Festival and more commonly known in English as Girls' Day- are everywhere. Celebrated on March 3, the displays that pop up in February are one of the first signs of impending spring. Pink! Cherry and plum blossoms! Elaborate doll displays! Even grocery stores get in on the fun and sell special treats and snacks.
Traditionally, families with a daughter in the house set up a beautiful doll display, like the one pictured below. The prince and princess preside over the top level, with courtiers, attendants, and court accessories gracing the descending steps in order of importance. Doll sets at our local department store include anywhere from just a prince and princess, to three or four steps of lesser dolls. The prices are eye-popping, starting from the equivalent of a few hundred dollars to several thousand! Of course, the larger the doll set, the harder to find space in a tiny Japanese apartment. Several Japanese friends have admitted to not having the space to justify such a purchase, and mark the day with a very tiny display, instead.
Wanting to get on the Girls' Day fun, but not wanting to burn the cash on a display that would cost more than all of our Christmas decorations put together, I found this little fabric Hinamatsuri set at the mall chain store, Oribe. Oribe sells traditional Japanese dishes, chopsticks, tea utensils, kimono-patterned bento boxes, and seasonal decorations. Oribe's adorable Girls' Day display drew us in, and Little TF and I both decided that the adorable bunny prince and princess sitting on little plum blossom thrones needed to come home with us!
As a lover of all things pink, Little TF declared the pink bunny princess to be a personification of...herself. She then declared the bunny prince to be me. "But I can't be the red bunny! That's the prince," I protested. "No, Mama, that's not a prince, that's the red princess (duh)." Upon reflection, I realized that since there are no girls making an appearance on the boys' holiday in May, it's not really fair of the boys to muscle in on Girls' Day. Two princesses it is, then!
If you set out a Hinamatsuri display for your daughter, tradition dictates that you pack it up at the end of the day on March third. Otherwise, a no-longer-quite-so-horrifying superstitious belief predicts that your daughter will get married late.
Disclaimer: I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate. However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong. Please let me know if something needs a correction. Thank-you!
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