Happy Girls' Day!

Today is Hinamatsuri, or Girls' Day, the Doll Festival in Japan. People display dolls called hinaningyô dressed in old style Kimonos. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits in their bodies, and would thus save the owner from dangerous encounters.

The traditional dolls are laid out on a 5 or 7 tiered display with Obina - The Emperor & Mebina - The Empress on the top level; Sannin-kanjo - Three Court Ladies come next: Nagae no choushi - Sake holder with long handle, Sanpou - Sake holder (She sits down while the others stand up), & Kuwae no choushi - Sake holder; The next level contains Gonin-bayashi - Five Musicians: Taiko - Small drum, Ookawa- Large hand drum (Both ookawa and kotsuzumi play their instruments standing up), Kozutsumi - Hand drum, Fue - Flute, & Utaikata - A singer (He has a folding fan (sensu)); Lastly come Zuishiin - Two Ministers: Udaijin - The Minister of the Right & Sadaijin - The Minister of the Left (The left was considered superior in the old Japanese court, therefore an elder man known of his wisdom was often chosen for this position. This is why a sadaijin doll has a long white beard, and looks older than a udaijin doll); Other items found on the display include Ukon no tachibana - A mandarin orange tree. (It was always planted to the right in the old Japanese court), Sakon no sakura - A cherry tree. (It was always planted to the left in the old Japanese court. Since this is a Peach Festival, it is often substituted with a peach tree), there are also small pieces of furniture, small meal dishes, and other things.

There are some special dishes for the festival. "Hishimochi" are diamond-shaped rice cakes. They are colored red (or pink), white, and green. The red is for chasing evil spirits away, the white is for purity, and the green is for health. "Chirashi-zushi,""sakura-mochi (bean paste-filled rice cakes with cherry leaves)," "hina-arare (rice cake cubes)" and "shirozake (sweet white sake)" are also often served.

Here is a Hinamatsuri song called "Ureshii Hinamatsuri (Happy Hinamatsuri)."
Akari o tsukemashou bonbori ni
Ohana o agemashou momo no hana
Go-nin bayashi no fue taiko
Kyo wa tanoshii Hinamatsuri

Let's light the lanterns
Let's set peach flowers
Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums
Today is a joyful Dolls' Festival

Of COURSE women have there OWN day. They always get items (not those) that men don't.

They EVEN have their own napkins...

If it makes you feel any better, Saturday's Kodomo-no-hi, or Boy's Day. Of course "they" have now changed the Boy's Festival into the generic "Children's Day" festival.

You put out dolls of warriors & heroes and celebrate the strength of Carp (?). You're also supposed to take a bath with flag plant leaves and eat rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves & rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves.

On 2005-03-03 13:07, freddiefreelance wrote:

You're also supposed to take a bath with flag plant leaves and eat rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves & rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves.

For Boy's day? Beats the Jesus juice Jackson used...

Happy Boys' Day! Play with your "Action Figures" and celebrate the strength of Carp!

Today's also the anniversaries of MTV first airing the Osbornes & Alfred Packer's postumous pardon. :D