Japanese festivals
The Japanese Doll Festival or Girls' Day, is held on March 3.[1] Platforms covered with a red
carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress,
attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.
Origin and customs
The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the
dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient
Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (?, lit. "doll floating"), in which straw hina dolls are
set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits
with them. The Shimogamo Shrine (part of the Kamo Shrine complex in Kyoto) celebrates the
Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the
safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the
dolls in their nets
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