Girls Festival called Hinamatsuri is a Japanese traditional event on March 3rd in which people wish for girls’ developments and healthy growth.

On the day of the Girls Festival, I visited Mrs. Harris’s 1st grade class to teach what the Girls Festival is and enjoy the craft with the little kids as well. So in this article, I’m reporting what we did and sharing what I taught.

[the origin of the Girls Festival and what it is like these days]

A long time ago, when the medical was not as much improved as today, it was not easy for little kids to recover once they got ill. However, all parents could do was just pray for them. As follows, people started to make dolls with paper and flush them in the river hoping they take sickness and bad luck away with them. The more time had passed, the fancier the dolls became, and people started Their bodies are made of wood and wearing beautiful traditional clothes. These days, there are only a few people who still run the custom of flushing paper dolls away, but many families with girls display the dolls from the end of February to a couple days after March 3rd, the day of the Festival and have special food.

 

[what I did with the 1st graders]

We enjoyed crafts making the dolls with origami papers and card boards. Both the kids and I had a good time crafting and it was a wonderful opportunity to share my home country’s culture as well. I’m very thankful for Mrs. Harris to accept my offer.