Hina-matsuri or Girls' Day in Japan

My Mum thinks that the games I play are a waste of time and perhaps that is true to some extent, but being in constant severe pain, they do tend to save my sanity.  Beyond that, however, from time to time, something is included in the online Facebook games that reminds me of the things I love most in life.

Festivals always have been important to me and I have been working on a book about Festivals throughout time and throughout the world for some time.  One of my favourite Festivals is Hina-matsuri, a Japanese Festival that is centred on dolls.  As a lifelong collector of dolls, it makes me happy to see beautiful collections, even if I do not own them myself.

Today, Family Farm Seaside, a game that I play and for which I write an ongoing guide, released a time-restricted Mission called 'Doll's Day' based on the Hina-matsuri Festival.  It reminded me that this is the time of year when Japanese households bring out their treasured Hina-matsuri dolls for display until 3 March.

The actual dolls are known as 'hina-ningyo' and represent the old court of the Emperor and Empress.  They can be extremely detailed and valuable although there are contemporary inexpensive dolls as well for those who are not fortunate enough to have inherited a set of hina-ningyo.

I am one of those who displays a card similar to the one shown above.  It is from Japan and very beautiful in its own fashion although it cannot compete with a real Hina-matsuri display!

Generally, these dolls are passed down from generation to generation.  The Festival also is known as the Peach Blossom Festival or 'Momo no sekku'  and peach blossoms are dedicated to the dolls on display.  It is a day for the females of our species and girls are honoured and it is hoped that their prayers for good health and fortune are heard.

The traditional Hina-matsuri display is arranged on a red carpet and usually involves five or seven tiers.  At the very top are the Emperor and Empress.  Below them is the level for three court ladies or 'sannin-kanjo'.  The next tier is reserved for five court musicians known as 'gonin-bayashi'.  Below them are two ministers known as 'udaijin' and 'sadaijin'.  On the lowest tier of a five-tier display are three servants.  Other items, such as cherry trees and peach trees and small dishes of festival food are included in the more elaborate displays.

Why is the hina display based upon the court of the Emperor and Empress and, beyond that, figures from a specific historical period?  In fact, in many cultures, the Emperor or King was considered either to be descended from a God or to have a divine right or divine blessing in the authority wielded by him.

In Japan, the Emperor was believed to be the descendant of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu.  After the arrival of Western influence in the form of Commodore Perry, there was a strong movement to purify Japanese culture from ALL foreign influences.  I believe that the traditional hina-ningyo represent part of that philosophy.

The Sun is the symbol of the power of Life itself in most ancient cultures.  Amaterasu was a very powerful and quite interesting character apart from that power, much like the Goddesses of ancient Sumer and Canaan.

The ancient Japanese philosophy of vitalism made the Sun Goddess particularly important.  Light and fire are purifying influences.  Vitalism in Japan was connected to a belief that Death was an impurity.  Temples dedicated to the Sun Goddess, for example, had to be rebuilt after two decades because the spirit in the wood would have died at that point.  After purification ceremonies, a new temple would be erected.

Possibly the most ancient 'dolls' or figures in Japan are the Dogu made of clay.  Dogu have been found dating from 10000 B.C. from an era before agriculture.  Here is one ancient Dogu.  I believe it represents a Sun Goddess:

Rays of light form her hair.  The shape of her face is the ancient form of female genitalia, later to become the shape of the 'heart'.  To me, it is fascinating to find similar styles and images throughout the ancient world. 

Interestingly enough, I met Japanese Emperor Hirohito and the Empress Ngaako years ago in La Jolla when he was presented with a special fish by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.  I was fortunate enough to have been friends with a leading professor there and was allowed to attend the reception at a local hotel afterwards.  I remember that there were hordes of protestors outside the hotel where the 'audience' was held.  They were protesting the ongoing slaughter of whales in Japanese waters.  It was sort of an irony and I was a little ashamed to be on the other side of the barrier, although the gala event was something I would not have missed for the world.  When I say that I 'met' him, it was only one of those general crowded meetings like the so-called 'private' audiences with the Pope.

Returning, however, to the grand Hina-matsuri Festival, there are many special items that are part of the traditional display as well as special songs dedicated to the Festival.  Here is one such song:

Akari o tsukemashou bonbori ni 明かりをつけましょう　ぼんぼりに

Ohana o agemashou momo no hana お花をあげましょう　桃の花

Go-nin bayashi no fue taiko 五人ばやしの　笛太鼓

Kyo wa tanoshii Hinamatsuri 今日は楽しいひな祭り

Let's light the lanterns

Let's set peach flowers

Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums

Today is a joyful Dolls' Festival! With the display of dolls from the Court are items are special significance if the collection is elaborate. The origin of the Hina-matsuri Festival is steeped in an ancient practice of sympathetic magic by which all the sins and bad luck of an individual or individuals were transferred to a specific object, leaving the person cleansed and purified.  There are many practices that involve the creation of a boat that is set on fire and set to float down a river.  Originally, the dolls representing the individuals were placed in a boat or simply thrown into a body of moving water.  You will find similar practices throughout the ancient world. The Festival therefore originally was for the benefit of the Emperor and his Court.  As time passed, however, it came to represent a time for prayers for good fortune and success for the girls of the families who celebrated by displaying the Court dolls. The history of the Festival dates back to

DIY Sacraments

In this contemporary era of tradtions stretched to the limit, where the Church actually allows people who have not even been baptised in the Catholic Church to dispense Holy Communion, what is wrong with the act of making ashes on Ash Wednesday for oneself, if one absolutely cannot go to Mass?

I usually go to Mass with my neighbours but they work and if there is a Holy Day on a weekday, there is little hope that I will be able to attend Mass.  So it was today.   I was a little depressed by it all until I began to think about the whole recipe for the sacred ashes.  They are made from the blessed Palms from last year's Palm Sunday and Holy Water and Oil.  Two out of the three I have.  I have Palms from Palm Sunday and a bottle of Holy Water from the Epiphany. I have olive oil and a beautiful polished dish made from an Olive Tree.  What is so wrong with the act of making ashes for oneself on Ash Wednesday in these circumstances?  Is it not better than being excluded from the tradition?

'Memento, Homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris.' 
Remember, Man, thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.'


I therefore made my own Ashes, although it was more difficult than I expected.  Palm Fronds, even when very dry, even when soaked in olive oil, do not burn well.  I finally bowed to reality and found my charcoal (for incense) and lit that.  Recited the prayers and made the sign of the Cross...  why not?

Best Glass of Juice EVER!

Recently, I am finding morality tales everywhere and this is no exception.  Is it a sign of impending age or a Tolstoy-like turn of mind?  In any event, here is the tale, once again nothing more than unadulterated fact.

I fell in love with Clemintines in England long ago.  In those days, California had its own citrus fruits and although they were good, they were limited in kind.  Nowhere in La Jolla could one find Clementines, even at Jonathan's or Jurgensen's.  Our family had an account at Jurgensen's, which would have meant that I could have carried home an armful of Clementines daily on my way home from school, had they existed!

Well, no one now would conceive of a market, whether a gourmet one or a corner ethnic shop where one could not purchase produce from every corner of the globe.   They sell Clementines everywhere and indeed have attempted to create North American Clementines from Florida and California.  The North American Clementines are NOT authentic in my view, tasting more like a cross between a Mandarin Orange and a Tangerine than a genuine Clementine.

In any case, Clementines from North Africa always are found in our Christmas stockings on Christmas morning and I buy them throughout the winter until they no longer are offered.

Usually, a box of Clementines will last for a month or so, and they are a traditional offering for the Lunar New Year (falling this year on 19 February).  I try to have some at hand when the Lunar New Year begins, but my box of Clementines for some reason had mutated into something bizarre and otherworldly.  The little fruits were as hard as rocks and had become somewhat discoloured.  They had no signs of mould upon them but they were utterly impervious to any sort of normal access, short of sawing them open with a serrated blade.

I did not toss them but some one else did.  Fortunately, because of the extreme arctic conditions here, they had not made it quite to the outside bin.  I found them and decided to try to use them somehow.

I cut one open with a serrated knife and used the old-fashioned kitchen juice implement (shaped like a little dome... predating the various Cuisinarts and such) to grind it into juice.  When I tasted it, I could not believe how wonderful it was.  It was as sweet as nectar.    There were almost a dozen in the box and I used them all.  They made two lovely glasses of juice.

Ordinarily, I would think it wasteful to convert Clementines into juice.  They are so easy to open and peel, so perfect to eat.  In this case, however, I had no choice.  Where some one else might have perceived them as nothing more than rubbish, I possessed the foolhardiness to experiment a bit further... and I found something glorious.  The only problem is that they did not last to greet the New Year in two days!