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03/03/2004: "Hina Matsuri - Girls' Day!"

"Happy Girls' Day!" My friend Michael brought me girly Japanese stickers. Today March 3rd is 'Hina Matsuri' in Japan, also known as Peach festival or Doll festival, when young girls (really young- under 12 years old) get together in front of decorative dolls like these and drink sake, hense celebrating the 'sisterhood.' Not really. It's a traditional holiday, which means that they (parents, teachers, neighbors, and all the other evil adults!) want girls to be girly girls as possible and marry off someone rich as soon as possible. Really. It's a 'conspiracy against girls' day. And these dolls are supposed to be on display only for a week or two; if you don't put away the dolls after the festival, the girl in the household will get married late, they say. We had the dolls of the couple (the top row in the picture) in my family, which at some point stayed in display all year round. But I did get married once anyway. So I broke the spell.