The Doll Festival, or momo-no-sekku (“peach blossom fete”). Ceremonial dolls – often valuable family heirlooms – are displayed in the best room in the house. Such dolls, clothed in ancient formal costumes, are often bought on the birth of a girl, or given by relatives or friends. In some areas, the festival maintains its original theme of exorcism: symbolic dolls are loaded up in boats and sent out to sea, with the prayer that all bad luck, impurities and evil spirits should be transferred from girls to the dolls which are floating away. Peach blossom, flowering at this time, is also displayed as a symbol of feminine qualities, and of marital bliss. Special foods eaten at this festival include hishi-mochi (diamond-shaped rice cakes), shiro-zake (ground rice and sweet sake)and sekihan (rice boiled with red beans).