Through this class, participants will experience and focus on creating an arrangement in honor of Hinamatsuri also known as Girl’s Day or Doll’s Day.  Hinamatsuri is a traditional Japanese holiday and festival celebrated annually on March 3.  This is a time when families wish for the happiness, health, longevity, and prosperity of their girls.  Create an arrangement featuring peach blossoms or a similar material, and incorporate colors like pink, yellow, white, and green to symbolize spring, purity, and new life/growth.  The style should be a traditional/classical arrangement showing elegance and celebrating femininity, family, and the coming of spring. 

Hinamatsuri Fun Facts: Beginning in mid-February, Japanese families will oftentimes display ornamental dolls in their homes to ward off evil spirits. The display features a red carpet and multitiered platforms.  On March 3rd, it is customary to eat green, white, and pink colored foods which can be symbolic of new life, purity, and good health.  Such foods include hishimochi (rhombus-shaped rice cake), hinaarare (sweet rice crackers), chirashizushi (scattered sushi) with special ingredients for good fortune, and hamaguri no osuimono (clam soup) symbolizing a happy marriage because a set of clam shells has only one match.  (*Therefore, clam shells can be featured in ikebana arrangements symbolizing a perfect match for a happy marriage.)  Families display dolls from mid-February until the festival day, with the tradition and belief of putting them away quickly afterward to ensure a good marriage. 

• Class will be held at Yanagi Botanic Arts Studio located inside Yobel/ The Look Up Gallery building.

•You may bring, borrow, or purchase a container for this class; choose the best option for you.

[Reference photo shows an example of the arrangement that will be created and the materials used may differ in the actual class.]