Hina-matsuri is held on March 3rd, a day to pray for the health and happiness of young girls. Special dolls, Hina-Ningyo dolls, are displayed at this event, so it is also called the Festival of Dolls. It's believed that the Hina-Ningyo dolls take away the bad luck of girls.
What kind of doll is it?
Traditionally, Hina-Ningyo doll is not a single, but set of multiple dolls. Hina-ningyo dolls depict the imperial court in which the Emperor, Empress and their servants wear a special court costume from approx. 1000 year ago. These dolls are displayed on a tiered stand for 2 - 3 weeks until the Festival of Dolls end. Commonly, people think 7 tiered stand would be the greatest to display, which means the total 15 dolls on it. The each doll height is about 20-25cm. Imagine having 15 of them all together! After completing whole display, you will see the most magnificent and brilliant piece of our most beautiful part of history and artwork.
Very big
The size of 7 tiered stands is like a fridge. Check this link to view 7 tiered stands images. Nowadays, the size of the stand is getting smaller due to the lifestyle change. Single tiered stand (no servants, just the Emperor and the Empress) are popular among the younger generation because their housing has space limits.
Nice, but…?
Not always, but traditionally, Hina-Ningyo dolls are bought by wife's parents. One of my friends lived in a small apartment was gifted the 7 tiered stands, it costs several thousand dollars, from his wife's mother living in a spacious house in a rural area. It is difficult for her to imagine the size of the apartment, I assume. And it turned out that the huge and gorgeous doll set literarily occupied half of the bedroom which was messy and full of kids toy and laundries. I heard that he couldn't show any complaints at all, because it was given by wife's mom with generosity, but actually he wanted to throw it away as soon as possible. When you become grandparents and want to gift something, I might want to have good communication with your children.
