Hina Matsuri and Clean Monday

Hina Matsuri is a Japanese festival that falls every year on March 3. It began in ancient times as a Shinto effigy ceremony to prepare farmers for the planting of spring crops: They would rub their negative energy off onto a doll, then float it down the river.

Today girl's set up displays of dolls, have a tea party, and - yes - some people still send dolls down the river.

Today is also Clean Monday, the first Monday of Lent, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The clean originally referred to the purification of the soul for Lent. Today it's customary to clean the house thoroughly, and, in Greece, people go on picnics, eat shellfish, and fly kites!

Agenda today:

1. Make hina dolls and paper boats

2. The hina-okuri ceremony

3. Prepare to plant

4. Spring cleaning

5. Make hishi mochi and have a tea party

1. Make Hina Dolls and paper boats:

In the days leading up to Hina Matsuri, children display a collection of dolls, including the emperor and empress dolls, with many attendants. These hina dolls are often very elaborate, but children also make simple dolls, using origami paper for beautiful kimonos.

Hina dolls are effigies, like the Maslenitsa doll - People in many cultures make effigy dolls in the spring to symbolically absorbs all bad luck and negative energy. 

I used to make hina dolls with my art class students each year. We usually made two dolls each - one to keep and one to float down river. The instructions are here.

 

This year I'll make simpler dolls on strips of paper.

Decorating the boat

We also used to make these beautiful paper boats to carry our dolls away, following the instructions at the Adventures of Captain Crafty site (which is now defunct).

Supplies: Large square of freezer paper, permanent markers, a wooden skewer

1- Cut a large square of freezer paper. Decorate the waxed side with permanent pens. 

2- Fold as the diagram shows, with waxed side up. 

3- Later we poked a skewer through the boats to hold the dolls in place.

2. The Hina-okuri ceremony:
Late in the afternoon some Japanese families perform the purification custom called hina-okuri: By stroking or breathing on the dolls they symbolically inject them with their own wrongdoings or ills, then they pile their dolls in a small wooden boat, and float them down the river! The river ritually bathes the dolls, and purifies the souls of the doll's owners.

As with any form of Shinto worship we begin with ritual washing, pouring water over our hands.

The second step is an offering to the kami. In this case, we are offering a paper doll. We each write down what we want to release on the paper inside our hina dolls.

Next we each take the doll in our hands, close our eyes, concentrate on those issues we are releasing, breathe on the doll, and wish that energy onto it.

Next we offer a silent prayer to the kami, of thanksgiving and petition for the future.

Finally, we send the dolls away: We take them to the creek and throw them into the current!

Today I will seek to become aware of a connection to the nature spirits - the kami - or that of God in all of nature, and offer my prayers of hope.

3. Prepare to plant:

Remember - the root purpose of Hina Matsuri is to prepare ourselves for spring planting. March is when the gardening season increases in intensity. I will prepare my garden beds, and plant seeds indoors and out. Right now, it's still too cold to plant outside, but I have lots of preparation work to do!

Set up for seed starting: Get out my grow lights, clean some 6-packs, finish making potting soil, and boil some water.

Bed Prep: Usually (in my valley) March 3rd is not too early to prepare a bed to plant early greens and onions. If the soil is too wet, prepping beds will damage the soil structure, so I wait until we've had several dry days in a row:

1. Chop and drop any leftover cover-crop and let it sit for a week or so to break down.
2. Next, remove all the leftover winterizing mulch from beds and toss it all in the compost.
3. Refill raised bed boxes if they are looking empty (organic matter decomposes, so it needs to be replaced every year in the fall or spring. Fill with a blend of sand/silt/clay and compost. If you have in-ground beds (i.e. a lot of clay), a top dressing of compost will help to dry things out and add organic matter to your soil.
4. At this time also add any organic nitrogen amendments, such as feather meal (12-0-0), or a well balanced fertilizer (4-4-4), and lightly rake into the soil. I use Down to Earth Organics because they are reasonably priced, organic, and produced locally in Eugene, Oregon.
5. Stab and wiggle with a digging fork: Spear the ground then wiggle the fork in all directions and gently lift the soil. This loosens and aerates the soil without destroying the structure, and also gently blend any new soil to avoid creating a separate soil horizon. 
6. Lightly work the top inch or so of soil with a scuffle hoe. 
7. Leave soil exposed for now. This will help the soil to dry out and warm up to at least 40 degrees for cool tolerant crops and 50+ for warm season crops.

4. Spring Cleaning:

I am continuing my preparation for Lent by observing Clean Monday today. Cleaning house is a custom for Clean Monday. In the Ukraine, Russia, and Greece everyone especially cleans the kitchen and the pots with which they have cooked festival foods, because it's the start of the Lenten fast.

In January I cleaned mold and mildew. In February I cleared clutter. In March I take the first steps of spring cleaning and maintenance, those big jobs that get put off through the winter months. This week my focus is in the kitchen - cleaning the oven, and cleaning the windows, outside and in.

I'm also working on clearing my studio this month - more about that later. 

5. Make Hishi Mochi and have a tea party:
In Japan, children often share a tea party with friends on Hina Matsuri, with sweet sticky hishi mochi (HEE-she MO-chee), with pink, white, and green layers. White is for purification, green stands for health, and pink will chase away evil spirits. The recipe is here.

Make a ceremonial pot of tea to celebrate your new life. Set a nice table, with a flower; put on some Japanese music; choose a beautiful bowl to drink from; make and drink the tea with attention to every scent and taste.