The Water-Splashing Festival
The Water-Splashing Festival is a traditional festival for the Dai people in the Dehong area of Xishuangbanna,
Yunnan Province in the southwest of China.
It is the New Year for the Dai, a festival to send off the old and greet the new.
It lasts three or four days.
Held during the sixth month of the Dai calendar, usually falling in mid-April of the Gregorian calendar, the
Water Splashing Festival is also known as the Festival for Bathing the Buddha.
During the festival, the door of every house is decorated with multicolored pieces of paper. All the villagers
dress in their holiday best. Sheep and cows are slaughtered for feasting, plus delicious glutinous rice cakes, rice
noodles, and rice wine.
The occasion is marked by a variety of entertainment, including singing and dancing, fireworks displays, boat
racing, exhibiting Kongming (air-borne) lanterns, bathing the Buddha, and parades and fairs. But the most
popular event is water-splashing.
On the eve of the first day of the festival, activities include fireworks displays and dragon
boat racing.
The second day is known as Neuter Day, which belongs to neither the old nor the new, year.
On this day, according to custom, people usually stay at home.
The third day falls on New Year's Day.
In the morning, people dress up and go to the temple to worship Buddha.
They make three to five pagoda-shaped sand piles over one meter tall and plant eight bamboo twigs on the top
wrapped in red and green strips.
They then sit around the pagodas to listen respectfully to scripture and historical legends, and pray for good
weather and many offspring.
In the afternoon, every woman will carry fresh water to clean the Buddha statue so she might get his blessing.
People then splash water on each other to symbolize the blessing, rinsing away sickness and disaster with holy
water for a happy life.
Water splashing is central to all because water, the symbol of holiness, goodness and purity, is the most
precious thing to the Dai.
During the festival, men and women indulge themselves in a spree of water-splashing.
They gather along roadsides and in public parks and squares armed with buckets and basins of water or
carrying squirt guns, to drench each other in wishes for good luck and a happy new year.
At night, music accompanied by drumbeats reverberates throughout the villages, and people enjoy dancing and
singing to their hearts' content.
The Water Splashing Festival vividly exhibits the Dai's homage to water and the culture of music and dance,
food, and costumes.
It is also a cultural bridge between Xishuangbanna and Southeast Asian countries that share the same festive
culture of water-splashing
—————每日英语听力
播报者：李心雨
排版｜田卓雯
文稿｜夏嘉宝
播报｜李心雨
审核｜胡海燕 盛雨濛 李雪英