The Doll's Festival

I'm sure that this post will be the most difficult one that ever I wrote.

We have The Doll's Festival for little girls on March 3rd in Japan.

The family who has a little girl decorates these dolls to hope she will grow up well.

We call this all dolls "Hina ningyo".

The festival originated more than 1,000 years ago.

A long time ago, Japanese people purify to use a doll on March 3rd.

In their purification, they leave to have their sin to the doll,

and they rub the doll against their skin, they blow their breath to the doll.

After all, they float the doll in a river.

(The doll is different from Hina ningyo.)

There were two kinds of dolls in Japan.

The first one was used to purify.

The second one was used to play dolls.

Hina ningyo came when the first one and the second one were mixed.

A long time a go, it was very difficult that all kids grew up well.

There were a lot of very bad illness.

So all familys used the Hina ningyo as a wish.

But it looked different from Hina ningyo we can buy today.

In the Edo era, its appearance was changed.

The dolls looked like the people who lived in the court lived in Heian era.