Hinamatsuri (Doll Festival)

One of the highlights of the recent Japan-Philippines Friendship Week at the Ayala Center Cebu was the Hinamatsuri or Doll Festival.

Doll makers of a factory based in Cebu, that manufactures Japanese dolls, demonstrated, in a booth exhibit, how the dolls are made up.

The practice comes from the belief that the sin of the body and bad luck are transferred to a doll and so the doll is washed away by setting it in a river to drift away.

During the Edo Period (1603 to 1867), the girls’ practice of playing with dolls developed into the hinamatsuri.

The observance falls every third of March. It is an occasion to pray for growth and happiness for young girls.

Most homes with girls display dolls for the fest and dedicate to them peach blossoms, rice cakes cubes, special colored and diamond-shaped rice cakes, white sake (wine made from rice, water, and koji mold), among other items.  – THE FREEMAN