雛祭り :: Hinamatsuri
March 3 2013, 8:20pm
br1dotcom
The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (雛流し?, lit. "doll floating"), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri
