Doll Festival (雛祭り - Hina-matsuri)

Each year the 3rd of march, is the Girl's Day and it's called Hina-Matsuri (雛祭り). It is custom in japan to prepare and display ornamental Dolls. How it is done today, the dolls are displayed in homes and shrines starting mid of February and take them out right after this festival. It is believed that families too slow to put them away, might have troubles marrying their daughters ;)

The origin of this festival was during the Heian Period in Japan (794 to 1185 d.c.) and originally called hina-nagashi (雛流し) and people used to put the dolls on a boat and send them down the river. It was believed that doing so, bad spirits would be sent away. This tradition partly died because the dolls would get stuck in fishermens nets. So, for a while, after people sent the dolls down the river and spectators are gone, dolls are taken back to the temple and burned.
In any case, the more modern tradition is a little bit different. Dolls are not burned. Actually some of the dolls can be very expensive, therefore, as many other celebrations, the more modern way of celebration might slightly differ in meaning and way of doing...