リシタさんの帰国が近づいてきました。今日は、一足早いひな祭りの感想を書きます。
Every society has some special days on their calendar, when the people celebrate together. Japan is no exception and thus, it also has many such days. One of the festivals of Japan is called “doll festival” or “Hinamatsuri” (ひなまつり).
Celebrated on March 3rd, this festival is seen as the festival of girls when families wish and pray for the health and future happiness of young girls.
I got this opportunity to be a part of Hinamatsuri celebration with Handa Sensei`s family.
We decorated the beautiful hina ningyo dolls. This is not just an ordinary doll set. These dolls represent the typical wedding setup of Heian period.
The dolls are arranged in five platforms. The top platform is the place of the emperor and empress sit. The second platform is the place for the court ladies, serving the imperial couple. The third platform has a set of five musicians while the fourth platform symbolises the ministers of the court. Finally the last platform has the three helpers and the royal carriages.
These dolls wear traditional Heian clothes and are made typically with either wood or paper.
The arrangement of dolls is pre decided. It took us a long time to arrange the hina dolls.
Later we had the traditional food of this festival like, chirashizushi (vegetables and egg on a rice bowl), hina arare (multi coloured rice cracker) and Hamaguri no osumasi (clam soup). Lastly, we held a tea ceremony and enjoyed sakura mochi with Japanese maccha.
Not only are the ways of the hinamatsuri interesting but the story and rituals are fascinating. Handa sensei explained that in earlier times , the inside of these clam shells were painted and a game of “clam shell matching” or “Kaiawase” was played. He also explained me that these dolls are supposed to be removed and packed in the box after the 3rd of March as soon as possible. This is related to a superstition which says that if Hina dolls are kept in home for a long time, the daughter of the family will have late marriage.
Similar tradition in India As I was searching about Hinamatsuri on internet, I found that a similar tradition exists in south India too. Because of the regional differences, I was not aware of this festival. This festival is called GOLU and takes place during autumn season.(reference:state of GOLU)
During this festival, wooden dolls are created by the local artists and women and girls arrange these dolls in platforms . They sing folk songs and narrate the stories of Durga, the hindu goddess, to each other. It was indeed an amazing experience and I got to learn both about Japanese culture a lot.
I thank Handa sensei for inviting me for celebrating this festival together.
