After being interrupted for three years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional Water Splashing Festival triumphantly returned to Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. During the festival, local people dress up and splash water on each other as a way to pray for good fortune and express good wishes. The festival doubles as a New Year's celebration for the Dai ethnic group. Originating in fifth-century Persia, the water-splashing ritual spread to China along with Hinayana Buddhism at the end of the 12th century, gradually becoming a Dai folk custom.