Japanese festivals
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. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take
the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.
The customary drink for the festival is shirozake, a sake made from fermented rice. A colored
hina-arare, bite-sized crackers flavored with sugar or soy sauce depending on the region, and
annaabi.ee 
