Many families display neatly arranged hina dolls, depicting the wedding procession of an imperial princess of the Heian Period. Hina dolls are often passed down from generation to generation, but are also often purchased soon after a daughter’s birth. If you would like to see some person, come down to any of our stores to check out our full hina doll displays. .

Making your own hina dolls can be a fun activity for your family. Uwajimaya carries a variety of origami and wrapping papers that you can use to make your own hina dolls using templates that can be found easily online.

Foods that are in season and that feature the colors of spring are eaten during the holiday. Traditional celebratory foods include sakura mochi – pink rice cakes wrapped in pickled cherry blossom leaves, chirashizushi – a dish made of seasoned sushi rice topped with eggs, assorted spring vegetables and seafood, hamaguri Ushio-jiru – a clear soup made with clams and hina-arare, colorful rice crackers coated in sugar. In recent years, nontraditional sweets like roll cakes, macarons and even doughnuts have become popular.

No matter how you chose to celebrate the holiday, Hina-matsuri is a fun, and delicious, way to look forward to the coming of spring, and to wish good health, and happiness, for the girls in your family.