Post by Hatsuharu Souma on Jul 12, 2005 22:21:26 GMT -5
Hina Matsuri
Dolls of the emperor, right, and empress sit on the top tier.
March 3 is Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival or Girls' Festival), when people pray for the happiness and healthy growth of girls. Families with young daughters mark this day by setting up a display of dolls inside the house. They offer rice crackers and other food to the dolls.
Hina-arare rice crackers
The dolls wear costumes of the imperial court during the Heian period (794-1192) and are placed on a tiered platform covered with red felt. The size of the dolls and number of steps vary, but usually the displays are of five or seven layers; single-tiered decorations with one male and one female doll are also common.
The top tier is reserved for the emperor and the empress. A miniature gilded folding screen is placed behind them, just like the real Imperial throne of the ancient court.
On the second tier are three ladies-in-waiting, and on the third are five male court musicians. Ministers sit on either side of trays of food on the fourth step, and the fifth row features guards flanked by an orange tree to the left and a cherry tree to the right.
These children enjoy Hina Matsuri dressed up like dolls themselves.
The practice of displaying these dolls on the third day of the third month on the traditional Japanese calendar began during the Edo period (1603-1868). It started as a way of warding off evil spirits, with the dolls acting as a charm. Even today, people in some parts of the country release paper dolls into rivers after the festival, praying that the dolls take people's place in carrying away sickness and bad fortune.
Most families take their beautiful collection of dolls out of the closet around mid-February and put it away again as soon as Hina Matsuri is over. This is because of an old superstition that families that are slow in putting back the dolls have trouble marrying off their daughters.
White Day
St. Valentine's Day in Japan is a day when women give the special men in their lives boxes of chocolate. To balance out the one-sidedness of this practice, White Day was invented for men to reciprocate such gifts. While Valentine's Day is an imported convention, White Day (on March 14) is a purely Japanese creation.
Just as with the giving of chocolates on Valentine's, the driving force behind the popularization of White Day was a confectionery maker. A company making marshmallows launched a campaign in 1965 urging men to repay valentine gifts with soft, fluffy marshmallows. The name White Day comes from the color of the candy, and at first it was called Marshmallow Day.
White Day candies and other sweets come in fancy wrapping.
When chocolatiers saw the opportunity to expand their business, they began marketing white chocolates, and other candy makers soon jumped on the bandwagon. Gradually, the original association with marshmallows disappeared; today, men no longer limit their purchases to confections, giving women handkerchiefs, accessories, and other gifts.
According to a survey conducted by a Tokyo department store in 1996, the White Day gift that made women happiest was flowers accompanied by a greeting card - regardless of whether the chocolates given a month earlier were for their honmei (true sweethearts) or to fulfill their giri (obligation) to classmates or colleagues.
Vernal Equinox Day and Higan
March 20 or 21 is Shunbun no Hi, or Vernal Equinox Day, a day when the sun crosses the equator making night and day equal in length. It's a national holiday in Japan, a day to commune with nature and to show our affection for all living things.
The seven-day period starting three days before Vernal Equinox Day and ending three days after is called higan. Higan, which also occurs around Autumnal Equinox Day, is - along with New Year's and the bon festival in the summer - a time when we pay our respects to ancestors. Visits are made to the family grave, cleaning it and offering flowers and incense to console ancestral spirits.
Following Vernal Equinox Day, days gradually get longer and nights shorter. There's an old saying that the chill of winter finally disappears after Shunbun no Hi, and temperatures do get higher from around this time. Cherry blossoms - the most popular symbol of spring in Japan - begin to bloom, first in the south and then in the colder parts of the country in the north.
Graduation Ceremony
The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March, so there's a rush of graduation ceremonies from mid- to late March.
The ceremony consists basically of students receiving graduation certificates, but because it's the last event of the school year, it's conducted in a very solemn manner. The principal opens with an address, followed by speeches from invited guests. The certificates are then handed one by one to the students by the principal. It's an event in which everyone graduating is a hero or heroine.
After the students receive their diplomas, all participants sing "Hotaru no hikari" (light of fireflies) together. Other songs may be performed, too, but "Hotaru" is sung at virtually all schools. The song's melody comes from the Scottish folk tune "Auld Lang Syne," with lyrics in Japanese. The Ministry of Education approved the song for singing in schools back in 1881; today it's performed not just at graduations but any time people must part.
Animation Festivals
Every spring and summer, anime (animation) films are shown in hundreds of movie theaters across Japan. In 1999 Japan's three biggest movie companies - Shochiku, Toei, and Toho - all released their spring lineup of movies on March 6.
Toei has held an Anime Fair for schoolchildren every spring and summer since 1967. Toei has played a leading role in the history of Japanese anime: Its 1958 movie Hakujaden (Legend of the White Snake; released in the United States as Panda and the Magic Serpent), the first full-length color animation feature to be created in Japan, won many awards both in Japan and abroad. Toei's Anime Fairs have launched the movie versions of such popular TV series as Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball.
Spring Vacation
In Japanese schools, ceremonies are held on March 25 and April 6 each year to mark the end and beginning of the school year. The 11 days between these two ceremonies is spring vacation. Unlike summer and winter vacations, kids don't get any homework during this time and no school-sponsored events are held.
One middle school teacher explains that spring break is a very busy time for the students, "since seventh and eighth graders have to get ready for the next school year, while ninth graders have to prepare to move on to high school." In reality, though, there are lots of different ways of spending spring vacation, as the examples above show. But there is one thing that Ryoko, Kanako, and Takumi all agree on: "11 days is way too short!"