The Water Splashing Festival is part of the three-day New Year's celebration observed by China's Dai people.

2018 marks the year 1380 on the Dai calendar. On the first two days of the festival, people get together with family and friends to sing and dance and participate in friendly dragon boat competitions. At night, they write down their New Year wishes on paper lanterns and release them along the Lancang River. The third day of the festivities is the grand finale.

Festival celebrations start in the early morning with young Dai girls collecting holy water from the Lancang River. This is then followed by a Buddha bathing ceremony which signals the official start of the water splashing festival.

Dai people believe that water is sacred, symbolizes purity and is the source of all life. The Water Splashing Festival was initially only celebrated as a symbolic gesture with people sprinkling holy water for good fortune, as an act of respect and to bring blessings. Nowadays, the religious act has evolved into a tourist event, attracting people from across the country and even the world to participate in the fun. 

Participants range from children to people in their late sixties. Although it is intended to be fun, it sometimes can get quite aggressive and dangerous. 

Xishuangbanna in southwestern Yunnan province is home to approximately 1.26 million Dai ethnic people, making them the ethnic majority in the region. Looking back to thousands of years ago, the Dai ethnic group shared some customs and history with people in many southeast Asian nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. The festival is celebrated along the Lancong River all the way down to the Mekong River.

( Photo credit: Shao Bin.)