Hinamatsuri - Doll's Festival!

Hinamatsuri (Hina-matsuri, hina means dolls and matsuri means festival), also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, or "Momo no sekku (Peach Festival)" because of the peach blossom season on the old lunar calendar.
This day is a time to pray for the health and well being of young girls. Most homes with young girls will set up a display of hinaningyo (hina dolls). They offer rice crackers and other food to the dolls.

The dolls wear costumes of the imperial court during the Heian period (794-1192) and are placed on a tiered platform covered with red felt.

The practice of displaying these dolls on the third day of the third month on the traditional Japanese calendar began during the Edo period (1603-1868). It started as a way of warding off evil spirits, with the dolls acting as a charm. Even today, people in some parts of the country release paper dolls into rivers after the festival, praying that the dolls take people's place in carrying away sickness and bad fortune.

Most families take their beautiful collection of dolls out of the closet around mid-February and put it away again as soon as Hina Matsuri is over. This is because of an old superstition that families that are slow in putting back the dolls have trouble marrying off their daughters.