雛祭り

明日は雛祭りなので、tutorのJ先生に雛祭りについての作文を送ってみました。今回作文提出のために色々調べて、初めて雛祭りの意味を知りました。うちは母が面倒くさがりのせいか、私が３歳になるまでしか飾りませんでした。最近はガラスケースに入ったお雛様とお内裏様だけのお人形が人気みたいですね。

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On March 3, we have Doll Festival in Japan. It is called “Hinamatsuri” . We display dolls on a tiered stand in our house. This event is held for girls because it is believed that these dolls protect girls from bad luck. The Japanese Doll Festival began duringthe Heian period, about 1000 years ago. I don’t know the origin well, but it is said that ancient people believed that these dolls protect girls from bad spirits, so they put these dolls on a boat and released it to the river to chase away bad spirits with them once a year. 

The top tier holds two dolls. One is Emperor, the other is Empress. On the second pier, there are 3 lady’s ladies’ maids. On the third tier, there are 5 musicians. On the fourth tier, there are 2 ministers. And on the lower tier, there are some furniture and tools. All the dolls wear Heian costumes. 

These dolls are displayed only for a week. It is said that if we display these dolls after March 3, the daughter of the family becomes an old maid. It is merely a superstition, but many people put them into the closet soon after the festival is over. 

When I was born, my grandparents on my mother’s side bought me these dolls. But my mother was a working mother and she was not a domestic sort of woman. She had stopped displaying it them when I became by the time I was 3 years old. My dolls had been kept in storage for a long time. Last year, my mother recalled the dolls, and displayed them for the first time in a long while. She said that these dolls cursed me because they had been neglected for such a long time, and she thought that’s why I had not married yet. I was flabbergasted by the idea! And after this episode, I was scared when I saw these dools at night because their faces was wereexpressionless.

This year, my mother seems to have forget forgotten about Doll Festival again. There are no dolls on a tiered stand displayed yet. I hope that my mother doesn’t come up with such a scary idea again.