The Water-splashing Festival is the New Year of the Dai people, which is equivalent to mid-April (April 13-16) of the Gregorian calendar and generally lasts for 3 to 7 days.

Dai people in Xishuangbanna and Dehong area also call this festival "Shang Han" and "Shang Jian". Both names are derived from Sanskrit, meaning turnover, change and transfer, which means that the sun has been running in the zodiac for one week and began to transition to the new year. The celebration lasts for three to seven days. The first day was called "Netmold" (meaning death). People think this day is unlucky, so they don't wash their hair, cut their hair or work. Let's go to catch the pendulum, race the dragon boat and raise the height.

The next day is called "Netbrain" (smelly meaning), which is considered unclean. You should bathe, wash your hair, get a haircut, change clothes and wash the Buddha statues and pagodas. At night, you should hold a show, set off fireworks and set off Kongming lanterns to get rid of all the diseases, disasters and dirty things in one year and enter the new year clean. In the Dai calendar, these two days are considered as "empty days", which are not counted as the old year or the new year. The third day is New Year's Day, which is called "Bawangma" (meaning god, also meaning the beginning of the year). Extended information

Legend origin

According to legend, the hometown of the Dai people is very beautiful, and the people's life is also very comfortable. Suddenly, one day, a fire demon came, doing evil things and doing mischief, making the hometown of the Dai people unbearable and barren. People gnash their teeth at it and have been looking for an opportunity to destroy it.

Then something even more incredible happened. The fire demon robbed seven beautiful girls. There is a youngest girl named Nan Zongbu, who managed to win the favor of the fire devil and accompanied him to drink on a day in June in the Dai calendar. When the fire devil was drunk, Nan Zongbu desperately touted the fire devil's skills, saying that he was not afraid of anything and could do anything in heaven and earth. Because the fire demon was drunk and very proud, he said, I am not afraid of anything, but I am afraid of the same thing, afraid that my own hair will strangle my own neck.

Nan Zongbu took advantage of the fire demon's snoring and fell asleep. She pulled a long hair from the fire demon's head and wrapped it around its neck. Sure enough, her head fell off. She was very happy, thinking that the fire demon was completely dead, but she never expected that the head would burst into flames wherever it rolled. Nan Zongbu shouted loudly, and the other six sisters came running. One of them lifted the fire demon's head in a hurry, and suddenly found that its head went out when it left the ground. As soon as it was put underground, it caught fire again.

In this way, seven people took turns to hold the fire demon's head. Because the head was very hot, they had to keep watering it to cool down. They held each other for a year, and they held the devil for seven years before they died.

Seven Sisters does harm to the people. In order to commemorate their courage and dedication, a water splashing festival is held every June in the Dai calendar. Young people set off firecrackers, sang and danced, and competed in dragon boats for three or four days.

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