Hinamatsuri, the doll's festival

        Hinamasturi is a festival celebrated in Japan on the 3rd day of March. But some parts of Japan have celebrations and doll arrangements lasting for a month. Usually, it is celebrated in families having a girl child and hence it is considered as the Girl children's festival. A set of dolls will be arranged in every home in special order. The dolls as well as the arrangement in the traditional way is costly and hence some houses will have only to main dolls for celebrating the Hinamatsuri.

      The exact arrangement contains dolls arranged in six or seven platforms/steps and it is based on the reduced priority of their social status beginning from the top.  The upper two layers of dolls have twelve layers of Kimonos one over the other and it shows their social priority. They are the Emperor and the Empress and their closest people. 

    The topmost step has the Emperor(Odairisama : おだいりさま) and the Empress(Ohinasama : おひなさま). The Emperor have a baton in his hand and the Empress holds a fan. This step also has two lanterns on the edges and they are called Hibukuro. The second platform has three ladies holding different items in their hand and they are called san nin kanjou (さんにんかんじょ). The third line has five male musicians with their instruments. They are called gonin bayashi(ごにんばやし).The forth step holds the ministers named Udaijin(うだいじん) and Sadaijin(さだいじん), two Samurais with their weapons. It also holds a Sakura and some other plants.The next step has three people called san nin jyougo(さんにんじょうご)  with faces of various expressions - anger,cry and laugh. The last platforms contains some jewel boxes, carriages etc. and there were two Kimonos also held at the bottom stage. 
      
   The arrangement and the appearance of the Hinamatsuri dolls are really attractive. There is another children's day festival meant for the boys also. And it will be celebrated in May.