Doll Festival (2005-03-03)
Today is the Doll Festival, which takes place on March 3rd every year. As the name implies, it has something to do with dolls. Several days earlier, girls in Japan will have started putting out a stand with one, five or seven tiers on which to display dolls. Not all dolls are displayable. You don't put a Barbie and Kent up there, the kind of dolls we are talking about here are traditional Japanese dolls dressed in elaborate court costumes. The emperor and empress sit on the top tier, followed by the prince, princess and all the staff. The set-up is quite expensive, the main dolls (royal family members) cost around US$100 each, other smaller characters about 35 bucks a pop, plus all the accessories among the dolls. If you have the dough to spend, go for a sever-tiered stand; if you are on a tight budget, just do the emperor-empress set-up.
The history of Doll Festival goes back long long time ago ( If you
have trouble finding the year a festival or custom originated, saying
"long time ago" can never go wrong). The custom actually came
from China when paper dolls given to girls in the family were thrown
into rivers so as to cast away their imperfections. This was done
of course before there was cosmetic surgery, corrective dental surgery
and Revlon, thus desperate parents came up with this ridiculous
idea thinking such ritual would make their ugly daughters pretty (fat
chance).
Somehow during the course of history, paper dolls became real dolls
and displayed, not discarded (smart move). The
original intention behind such ritual also changed from ridding of
girls' imperfections to hoping they would get married when they grow up
if they display dolls in the house when they are young, which is a much
more attainable goal. Therefore on the bottom tier of the doll
stand, bedroom furniture--typical wedding gifts given to newly-weds by
their parents-- is often displayed.
Those tiny teeny chests, tables, and dressers are actually quite
cute to look at. That's not what I can say about the dolls.
Any inanimate object with eyes are eerie. I cannot bear to have a
painting of a person, or a mask, or a doll with big ol' eyes looking
straight at me in the house, not even Barbie and Kent.
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