Hinamatsuri – The Festival for Girls 🎎🌸

Just like every country has its own traditions, the country where I was born also has many seasonal customs.
Today I’d like to share one of them: Hinamatsuri, the Japanese Girls’ Festival.

In very simple terms, Hinamatsuri is a celebration held on March 3rd to wish for the happiness and healthy growth of girls.
Families celebrate with colorful foods such as hina-arare, hishi-mochi, and chirashi sushi.
The highlight of the festival is the display of hina dolls, which are often given by the maternal grandmother. In the past, they were even passed along as part of a daughter’s wedding belongings.

I have a daughter, and when she was little, my mother (her grandmother) bought a set of hina dolls for her.
It’s a small set with just the Emperor and Empress dolls, but they are beautifully made with lacquered craftsmanship. Even after more than ten years, they still look as elegant as ever. Every year, I look forward to displaying them.

This year, I placed our campanula flowers on both sides of the dolls.
They are Western flowers next to traditional Japanese dolls, but somehow the combination worked beautifully and made the display feel even more festive.

My parents both worked very hard when I was growing up, and our family was not wealthy. They were always busy with work, so I spent most of my time at my grandmother’s house with my siblings and cousins. I never really felt lonely, but I also didn’t know much about my parents themselves. It wasn’t that we didn’t talk—just that they were always busy.

Because of that, I only discovered much later in life that my mother actually loves flowers.

The hina dolls my mother bought for my daughter.
The flowers grown by my husband’s family, arranged beside them.
And my daughter standing there happily, making a peace sign for the photo.

It looks like such an ordinary scene.
But somehow it makes me a little emotional.

Maybe that’s just what happens as we grow older. 🌸