Hina Dolls

Friday, 4/13/2012 -- Here are photos of Susan and I receiving Hina dolls. Each year in early March, Japan celebrates the Doll Festival (known in Japan as Hina Matsuri). At that time, Japanese families decorate special "step" altars and artfully arrange Empress and Emperor dolls on the steps. The tableau is then decorated with lovely flowers such as peach blossom boughs. Rice cakes flavored with wild herbs, or colored and cut into festive diamond shapes, are presented as an offering to the dolls, which represent court nobles from Japan's Heian Period (A.D. 794-1185). Susan and I are learning every more day about this extraordinary culture!