Hinamatsuri: Girl's Day

Because I can't let any Japanese holiday pass without notice, I wanted to make a brief post about Girl's Day (Hinamatsuri).  Girl's Day is full of everything girls like; namely, delicious rice cakes, obscenely expensive dolls modeled after the now-defunct court of the Japanese Emperor, and threats of marital ruin.

Every Hinamatsuri, little Japanese girls unpack sets of intricately-dressed Japanese dolls.  These sets can consist of a simple king-and-queen pair (if your family lives in a cardboard box) or a group of twelve or thirteen royals and courtiers (if your parents love you).  The girls set their dolls up on a multi-tiered display platform before chowing down on rice cakes.  And as far as I can tell, that's the extent of the festivities on Hinamatsuri.

Oh, except that if you don't take the dolls down by the following day, they'll make it so you never get married.  Thanks, dolls!

"We are vindictive jerks!"