Hina Matsuri (雛祭り) is celebrated on March 3rd, and is a special day in Japan to wish for good fortune and good health for girls. It is also referred to in English as 'Girl's Day' or 'Doll's Day'. In late February/early March you will see many shops around Japan selling Hina Matsuri themed snacks and sweets. I went around to a few local shops to see what I could find.
The type of Hina Matsuri snack that I saw being sold most across supermarkets and even in convenience stores was Arare (あられ) which are cute little cracker balls that are made of glutenous rice. Arare is a common snack sold all year around that typically has a soy sauce flavor. For Hina Matsuri, they come in a colorful arrangement of green, pink, and sometimes yellow. The flavor is either soy sauce, or sugar depending on the region they are made in.
One of the customs of Hina Matsuri is for families to put out their Obina 男雛 and Mebina 女雛 dolls on display in their home. These dolls represent a traditional Heian period wedding. More elaborate displays have multi-tiered doll stands called Hinadan 雛壇 with various traditional decorations, and dolls that represent the other attendants of a typical Heian period wedding. The entire set can be very expensive, but many families stick with just the set of two dolls, or have full sets that were passed down to them from previous generations. There are also boxes of sweets adorned with Obina and Mebina dolls that you can purchase as a gift. The one that I found had some pink Konpeito 金平糖 candy inside!
A Hina Matsuri sweet that I haven't tried yet is called Hishimochi 菱餅. It is a type of Wagashi 和菓子 (Japanese sweets) that is a rhomboid shape and is made of three layers of different colored mochi (pink, white, and green).
Although I already talked about Konpeito, (which came in the Obina and Mebina decorative box) I found this cute bag of Konpeito that came with some strawberry shaped candies. Konpeito is a popular type of candy to give as a gift for Hina Matsuri as well.
The only savory snack I ended up getting were these senbei 煎餠 (rice cracker) snacks with Obina 男雛 and Mebina 女雛 motif wrapping paper. They are crunchy and are flavored with shrimp and soy sauce!
Okay and lastly, my favorite of the sweets that I found! These ADORABLE jelly sweets. There was a pop-up stall in a mall that had a huge selection of traditional and non-traditional Hina Matsuri sweets and snacks. For the jelly sweets, you fill a little box with your favorite sweets. Here are the ones that I chose!
your photos are so beautiful! and lovely descriptions of everything <3