The beginning of Spring

The arrival of March gives me a sort of excitement in term of a new biginning of my routine life. Well it is not my personal sentiment. For every Japanese spring has a very special meaning respectively. There are dozens of annual and social events which have been handed down for generations as our culture throughout the year. I think many of them comes up in spring time. Spring in Japan refers to the farewell to the previous year and the new beginning of our routines in school, workplace and the like. In March we have the Doll Festival for wishing girls' life-long happiness and health. The dolls in the pictures were specially given to my daughter from her grandmother in time for celebrating her first Doll's Festival. It has been over 20 years since then and we still put them out of the boxes and decorate them for this day as if we are celebrating our reunion once a year. This annual event has originally started as a way of warding off evil spirits on newborn baby- girls and the dolls were considered to act as a charm. That way every parents and families of ancient eras wished their daughters for a healthy and happy married life.

Nowadays it has more pleasure giving elements. The dolls with ancient costumes are surely worth of being displayed. They make us happy and it is such a peaceful time to enjoy some sweets and drinks with family and with friends besides the dolls. I love the tradition.