O-Hinna Matsuri

Today I went to a Doll's Festival (O-Hinna Matsuri) in the Maana area of Yawatahama. Doll's festival is a holiday celebrating the health/happiness of the family's female children. The dolls are quite expensive and are traditionally given to the girl by her grandparents when she is a baby. My friends told me that although the actual holiday is celebrated in March, the dolls usually remain on display in the household until the first week of April. After the 3rd the display is promptly dismantled and the dolls are returned to storage until next year.

It is important to remove the display in a timely fashion because of an old superstition which says that the longer it takes to put the dolls away, the longer it will take for the daughter to get married.