Hinamatsuri(girl’s festival)

March 3rd is Hinamaturi,It is also called Momo no sekku (peach festival) because we make peach branch flower arrangements.  The day is also symbolized by traditional Japanese dolls. We celebrate girls on this day.

Generally a typical Hina doll set consists of  three rows, which are filled with wedding guests. It has one doll as a bride. But my set was 7 rows! My grandpa gave it to me; It filled the entire tatami room! It was very hard work to decorate it and clean up afterwards.  There was a strange superstition about Hina dolls in Japan. It was said that you would become a bride yourself late in life if you didn’t put dolls away soon. I didn’t like this superstition, and thankfully nowadays only older people might say that.

Hinamaturi food and drink!

Chirashizushi :The most common food is for the girl’s festival is Chirashizusi, I suppose.. Chirashi means spread. Usually, all of the ingredients of sushi such as egg, fish, cucumber, and shitaki mushrooms are spread on top of  the vinegered rice. It’s easy to assemble and everyone likes it!

Hina arare: Hina arare is my mom’s favorite snack in spring. It’s usually arare ( rice snack), but these are colorful and we can see cute packages for hina arare during the season. If you eat hina arare you can’t stop 🙂

Amazake: It’s the only alcoholic beverage that children can drink. It’s made from Koji and rice. It’s very sweet without sweeteners. I like to drink it with a little bit of ginger. It’s a very healthy drink because koji is bacteria. The drink works well in your gut.