Happy Hinamatsuri :)
I'd totally forgotten until my English students reminded me. Today, March 3, is Hinamatsuri, a girl's celebration of growth. According to Alex, the tradition started with Shito shrines transfering all the evil or bad luck onto dolls and sending them to sea. The tradition has evolved and changed so that families all have a set of hina/Prince and Princess dolls, and possibly some servants, to decorate the home with every year, very much like Christmas trees. Girls will invite friends, and possibly a lucky boy, over for a party. Traditional foods eaten are :
1 gomoku-sushi - not the nigiri or norimaki popular overseas, but vinegared rice mixed with various vegetables like bamboo, lotus root, carrots, shiitake etc, and decorated with thin strips of egg, nori and pink fish flakes. Some of you may remember my post when I made some in the summer.
2 little rice puff and senbei crackers called hina-arare
3 sakuramochi, a Japanese sweet made with pink sticky rice and beanpaste, and wrapped with a pickled cherry blossom leaf.
It being a normal school night, I had totally forgotten about it being the day and hadn't prepared anything special, but hubby bought some sakuramochi today for me and the kids. We do have some hina-arare that have not been eaten yet, and today when I got home, I got out our tiny little hina ningyo decoration that I bought during our vacation in January. We don't have the money to buy a proper doll set, nor do we have a family passed down through generations like a normal Japanese family. This little decoration is perfect to decorate the hall for the time being.
I love these sakuramochi - there is another type as well, but these are my favorite. There is a distinct flavor of pickled cherry blossom, and the edible leave adds a bit of salty flavor to the very sweet dumpling, sort of like salted caramel. Children don't like the leaf as much - I didn't either when I was small. It's an adult food really.
We'll probably eat the sakuramochi tomorrow morning and maybe Audrey will take the hina-arare to her swimming class tomorrow so she can eat it on the way home. I could make some gomoku-sushi tomorrow for the kids if they'd like some... but Audrey has requested meatsauce spaghetti for tomorrow so I guess not LOL It's just as special I guess <3