Hinamatsuri is not just a manga about a girl from the future dropping on a Japanese mobsters head. Hinamatsuri is also a Shinto holiday celebrated on 3 March in Japan. Also called Doll's Day or Girl's Day, the holiday inspired the Doll Festival in Final Fantasy XI and Little Ladies' Day in Final Fantasy XIV.
Hinamatsuri is one of the five seasonal festivals, or gosekku, that are held on auspicious dates of the Chinese calendar. When converted to the Gregorian calendar, those dates converted to 1 January, 3 March, 5 May, 7 July, and 9 September. The practice of celebrating the gosekku began in Japan sometime in the 8th century, ending in the Meiji era in the 19th century.
The primary aspect of Hinamatsuri is the display of seated male and female dolls. The dolls, usually seated on red cloth, vary in quality, from simple paper dolls to intricately carved three-dimensional dolls. While the dolls represent a Heian period wedding (from 794 to 1185 AD), the dolls are usually described as the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
Wikipedia holds a description which probably explains why Little Ladies Day in FFXIV came about.
During Hinamatsuri and the preceding days, girls hold parties with their friends. Typical foods include hina-arare (雛あられ, multi-colored rice crackers), chirashizushi (ちらし寿司, raw fish and vegetables on rice in a bowl or bento box), hishi mochi (菱餅, multi-colored rice cakes),[4] ichigo daifuku (いちご大福, strawberries wrapped in adzuki bean paste), Sakuramochi (桜餅) and ushiojiru (うしお汁, clam soup, as clam shells represent a joined pair).[5] The customary drink is shirozake (白酒, lit. "white sake"), also called lit. "sweet sake" (甘酒, amazake), a non-alcoholic sake.
Yes, Hinamatsuri is only celebrated by girls. Boys had their own holiday, Tango no sekku, celebrated on 5 May. But in 1948, the holiday was renamed Children's Day My guess is that the connection to the samurai and thus militarism led the American occupation authorities to nudge the Japanese into a different direction.
The in-game lore also connects Little Ladies' Day to royalty in the story, "The Legend of The Lost Lady".
Three centuries past, the city-state of Ul'dah was ruled by an iron-fisted sultan by the name of Baldric Thorne—a man feared across the region for his quick temper and his even swifter justice. Perhaps as punishment for his compassionless ways, the Twelve saw fit to bless the sultan with but a single daughter, Edvya, whom the sultan loved more than the sun and the moons. And it was this love that drove Baldric to take measures that would ensure no harm ever befell the princess—including her confinement to the royal palace and the assignment of a retinue of over fifty handmaidens and seneschals.
As the princess grew older, however, a longing to explore the unknown land that lay beyond the palace walls tugged at her soul, until one day, in a devilish display of wit, she switched clothes with a miller girl come to the palace with her mother to deliver flour to the kitchens. Once Edvya had exchanged her beautiful gown and tiara for the soiled rags of a commoner, it proved little trouble to pass unnoticed through her legion of servants and slip out into the city for a day of wicked fun.
It did not take long for the palace to realize something was afoot, and upon discovering that his only daughter was missing, the sultan, overcome with rage, immediately ordered the sultanate's entire standing army to scour the city until they had found the princess. As for the royal impostor, thinking that Edvya may have been kidnapped by the girl's mother, the sultan ordered the miller's house torn apart, her family arrested, tortured, and thrown in the royal oubliette.
As luck would have it, the princess had not wandered far from the palace, and was discovered in a nearby market by her father's men. Once back in the safety of the palace, Edvya revealed the whole ruse to her father, explaining that she had conjured it on her own, and begged that he show mercy to the miller's family.
Upon realizing that the atrocities committed to the miller girl and her family were without warrant, he had the family released from the oubliette and summoned to the royal audience chamber. Here, not only did he personally apologize to the family and order the royal architects to design and build them a new home, but, in a move most unexpected, Baldric himself offered to serve as the daughter's seneschal for a full day, saying that no young woman, regardless of her standing, should be denied the respect due all citizens of the sultanate; that all girls, common or noble, are 'ladies' in their own right.
Rumors of this unforeseen display of humility were quick to spread through Ul'dah and ultimately proved to be extremely well-received amongst the smallfolk, who, until then, had perceived their leader as little more than a heartless despot. So well-received were they, in fact, that the sultan declared one day from each solar year on which he would select, via lots, a common girl from the city and serve as her personal seneschal, as he had done with the miller's daughter.
Hopefully the background on Little Ladies' Day is helpful. I know I found the quick bit of research I did for the blog post enlightening.
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