In Japan, March 3rd is the Hina Matsuri festival day.
This day is a celebratory day for girl's and is also known as the Peach seasonal festival.
Girl's are dressed up in kimonos, houses are decorated with Hina dolls and we pray for our daughters' happiness.
The photograph shows me when I was 7 years old on Hina Matsuri day. It's a really old photo isn't it !?
Originally , for this day, dolls and other decorations are on displayed on set pieces made of 5 steps however some houses make set pieces of 7 steps and place even more decorations. Our family wasn't particularly well-off so so my mother would buy me dolls for one level each year, and gradually the decorations would increase.
Houses nowadays are generally smaller so there are many families that display only one level of decorations.
The Hina dolls are displayed in houses from one month before the festival, and they are taken down on the after the festival, on March 4th and cleared away.
There is a traditional superstition that if one leaves the decorations out as they are ( beyond March 4th ) then the daughter in that house will get married late.
Of course my mother cleared away the decorations for me early, however I got married when I was 31 years old...which wasn't really all that early ?!
What kind of festivals do you have in your country and what legends and traditional tales accompany them ?
Leave a comment below.
今週の語彙 This week's vocabulary
■ひな祭り / ひなまつりGirls' (dolls') Festival (March 3rd) ■お祝い / おいわいcongratulations , celebration ■桃 / ももpeach ■節句 / せっくseasonal festival ■祈る / いのるto pray, to wish ■雛人形 / ひなにんぎょう doll ■本来 / ほんらい essentially, originally ■段 / だん step, stair ■お飾り / おかざりdecorations ■裕福 / ゆうふくaffluent, well-off ■ずつapiece, each ■徐々に / じょじょにgradually ■増える / ふえるto increase ■翌日 / よくじつnext day ■片付ける / かたづける to tidy up, to put in order ■そのままwithout change, as it is ■言い伝え / いいつたえ tradition, legend
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