Hina Matsuri

March 3rd was Hina Matsuri, a Japanese cultural holiday.  Traditionally, this day celebrates girls and May 5th is Boy’s Day. Although I don’t know too much about either holiday, several pretty-colored holiday foods caught my eye. Earlier in the week we snacked on some Hina Arare, sweet and slightly salty rice crakcer balls. For dinner, we went to the store to pick up some prepared foods.  Here’s our mostly non-homemade dinner. He used pre-cooked and seasoned hamburger patties and made the mini hamburgers, and I cooked a package of garlic gyoza. The three maki-rolls with colorful packaging on the left were Hina Matsuri specials. The cute little packages in front are tri-color jelly, made to look like hishimochi, for dessert.

Last week, a teacher invited me to her home so I could see the traditional heirloom Hina Matsuri dolls. We had tea and sweets and she told me a little bit about her collection. Sadly, I forgot the camera, so I only have this photo from my phone to share.

＼(＾▽＾*) Happy Girl’s Day! (*＾▽＾)／