Hina Matsuri 雛祭り

Hina dolls on the stage.

This week marks Hina Matsuri here in Japan, also known as Girls Day, or the Doll Festival. The festival celebrates young girls, and is often marked with doll sets that include the Emperor and Empress at the top, together with members of the court in Heian period (794-1185) dress.

Like all good holidays, it is celebrated with song and food.  Little man had a pageant at his school- his first! The chaos was amazing, as was to be expected with a school full of kiddos under age six all performing for the masses of excited parents and grandparents. All of the classes did great; his class performed twice, once with songs and a second time with a musical drama about the sea, earth, and sun, complete with costumes. The teachers really worked hard to set everything up, and to have the kids practice for so many weeks leading up to the big day.

 I'm not sure what is more amusing in this photo- the cuties on stage or the multiple video cameras rolling in the audience.

 CUTENESS.

After the pageant, the kids all took home bento boxes with special food, as well as sweets related to the holiday. The bento was quite delicious, and included chirashizushi, sushi rolls, and an adorable egg-rice roll complete with imprinted hina dolls. They were also provided with sakura mochi, a traditional Hina Matsuri sweet made of red bean paste, mochi, or glutenous rice cake, and the leaf of a cherry tree. They also received a sucker and a bag of hina arare, an airy, fuffy popped rice snack coated (and I mean *coated*) in sugar. The arare, like the sakura mochi, consisted of three colors- pink for the blossoms of the peach tree (not seasonal now, but it was when the festival was on the lunar calendar), white for the still remaining snow, and green for the new growth, and also symbolizing the growth of the girl children that the holiday celebrates.

 Hina Matsuri foods.

 Hina arare.

Although Boy's Day will arrive in May, we took the occasion of the Hina Matsuri pageant to celebrate the boy in our house, and purchased little cupcakes with the boy and girl that top the hina doll set- representative of the Emperor and Empress, and something that seems more treat-like to our little dude's American palette than traditional Japanese mochi sweets.

Hina Matsuri cupcakes!