Cleaning Up Girls' Festival Display Might Be Important To Avoid Late Marriage

I introduced Japanese traditional Girls' Festival (Hina-Matsuri) on March 3rd previously on my two blogs (this "Yuko's Japan Gide" and in "Yuko Takayama") and I'd like to talk about this traditional event a little more.

The Hina-Dolls (special dolls set for Hina-Matsuri) are seasonal displays same as Christmas trees. So people take the dolls out of their closets only for this season. It's been two days since the Girls' Festival (Hina-Matsuri) Day, how long do people keep displaying the dolls?

I guess most people have already put them back into their closet, even though Hina-Dolls can be seen in shops' display and exhibitions. Actually, since old times it has been said that if a family delays putting Hina-Dolls back into their closet after the Hina-Matsuri Day, their daughters would also have a delay in their marriages. Therefore as soon as the Hana-Matsuri day is finished, people clean up the display and put the dolls back into their closets.

Of course nowadays people know it is just a superstition. However, many parents take their children's late marriages as a serious problem, therefore they might as well put the dolls back into the closet, though daughters themselves may not care about it.

I have an episode about this superstition in my family. My sister is a single working woman and living near my parents. One day my mother visited her house and found a small Hina-Dolls set displaying in her house. It was in January, so my mother said "Oh you are such an early-bird! Already displaying for Girls' Festival!" My sister replied "Nope, I display them there throughout the year because they are so pretty." At that moment my mother screamed and told my sister "Put them back into your closet NOW!" I guess even today breaking the superstition could be a threat to some people.