This traditional Japanese celebration is held on March 3rd every year to pray for a healthy and happy future for girls. It is an old tradition which traces its origins in the Heian Era, roughly 1,000 years ago, when the daughters of nobility would play with paper dolls.
On this day paper dolls resembling noble couples would be displayed, and a small party would be held with rice cakes and sake made from
peaches.

The actual celebration as it is known today, however, took shape during the Edo Era about 300 years ago. Dolls created for the festival were lined up on multi-tier displays covered with bright red cloth, with five-tier and seven-tier displays most commonly created. A couple resembling the Emperor and Empress would be placed on top, followed by dolls resembling other members of the royal court, including the Three Court Ladies (sannin-kanjo) and the Five Musicians (gonin-bayashi).

These are joined by chests containing things a new wife would bring into marriage. In its entirety, the procession of dolls and figures symbolizes growth into womanhood and subsequent marriage and a happy, healthy and prosperous family life. In addition to these decorations, colorful pink and white rice cakes in diamond shapes (hishi-mochi), white sake, and peach blossoms are part of the display.

Japanese families even today celebrate this day as a way to pray for the healthy and happy development of their daughters. Soon afterwards, cherry blossoms come into bloom to signal the arrival of spring in Japan.