by Susan Palmes-Dennis
Charlotte, North Carolina--Japanese-American women in the Charlotte community celebrated their native country's Hinamatsuri or Girls Festival last March 3.
An acquaintance named Harumi Ito Lerner explained to this writer that the Hinamatsuri or Girls Festival is also known as “Momo no Sekku” which means Peach Festival and is considerable a special day in Japan.
Hinamatsuri is an annual celebration and is marked with prayers for the health and happiness of young girls. Families with girls display “Hina Ningyo” or Hina dolls.
It is said that the Hina Ningyo takes away bad luck from the girls that own them.
Each Hina Ningyo wears a Heian period court costume which can represent the Emperor, Empress, their servants or attendants, musicians and other members of the royal court.
A platform covered with red carpet-material is used to display the set of ornamental dolls. On the day of the festival it is said that pink means peach, green means land and white means snow.
These three colors portray spring scene after the snow melts away and shows blooming peach flowers. Another folk belief is that if people put away the Hina Ningyo late, the girl may end up getting married late in the future.
Harumi Ito Lerner is from the Kumamoto prefecture located south of Japan. She came to Charlotte in 2004 from New Jersey. A friend gave her the set of Hina dolls and since then she had been celebrating Hinamatsuri every year on March 3.
To preserve the dolls, she kept it in its original boxes. “They came as a complete set so we don’t have to change them out,” Harumi said.
Based on my online research, the earliest recorded instance of a public display of the dolls to commemorate the Peach Festival occurred in 1625, when Emperor Go Mizunoo’s daughter Oki-ko ordered the Imperial court ladies to set up a stage where she can display her dolls.
During Japan's Meiji period when a new emperor came to power, the Hinamatsuri was lowered in favor of new holidays that focused on the emperor’s supposed bond with the nation, but the event was later revised.
By focusing on marriage and families, the Hinamatsuri represented Japanese hopes and values and as the dolls represented the emperor and empress, it also fostered respect for the throne.
The holiday then spread to other countries where there were immigrant Japanese communities and their descendants. Harumi said she noticed that some people have incomplete Hina doll collections featuring only the Emperor and Empress.
Harumi invited friends to the festival and some of her friends were Filipino-Americans Angela Cook and Mae Nonato Armstead. My Tomadachi Harumi is looking forward to the next Girl’s Festival next year.
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