Water Splashing Festival

Water Splashing Festival is the New Year in Dai Calendar. It is called "Shanghan"or "Jingbimai" (the new year), as well as "Hounan" (Water Splashing Festival) in Dai Language. Water Splashing Festival is not only the first Buddhist festival at the beginning of a new year but also the most important festival of the Dai Nationality, De-ang Nationality and A-chang Nationality.

Water Splashing Festival usually lasts for three days. In the first two days, they hold dragon-boat competitions to say farewell to the old year; on the last day, they carry out the "lucky" activities welcoming the New Year. All people in a village will take a bath and change into new clothes and go to worship Buddha in the first morning of the Water Splashing Festival. People assemble in the Buddhist temple, building a tower with sand. Then all people sit around the tower and listen to the chanting of Buddhist scripture. Then again a Buddhist statue will be carried out into the yard and splashed by all women in the village, which is so-called bathing for the Buddha. After such religious rite, all young people will go out of the temple and splash water on each other for pleasure. All pass-bys are involved in water splashing and congratulations are expressed onto each other. Spray flies everywhere, and everyone is shouting for fun. The water brings good luck and happy cheers to all the villages around.