Hinamatsuri

Today is Hinamatsuri or Girls’ Day, so the girls got given little oval-shaped, plastic boxes containing two Japanese sweets by Ohnishi-sensei. The boys also got a marshmallow, filled with bean paste. Yum, yum!

I went to Linden Hall briefly with Drum, and Flick after school. We are trying to put together an "After-school English" board for displaying the work that the children do. I could not stay for long as I wanted to catch the bus back (I ended up running for it), but I did manage to find the letters (in the letters box) to make the words "Look what we made in fter sc nls." I did not have time to finish it off with "after-school English" so hopefully they will manage that. The children were singing the hinamatsuri song that I put on my blog yesterday, and then had to draw the paper-doll display. It is a traditional layout, about which the song is all about creating.

The seven-tiered, red felt-lined display consists of the Emperor and Empress at the top, with ladies-in-waiting, court musicians, etc. below them. The origins of the day are from when people used to fashion paper-dolls, place them in a boat, and send them down a river, hoping that they would take the evil spirits with them.

Today is the 3rd of March, which in Japanese is pronounced san gatsu mikka. Now, with a little leap of imagination, and noticing that three can be said both as san and mi, we come up with the alternative title for today: mimi, meaning ear. Thus today is also Ear Day!