The Dai people, also known as the Baiyi people before ethnic identification, are one of the ethnic minorities in China. They are related to the Yunnan and Yue people in the Baipu and Baiyue, and are related to the Shan people in Myanmar and the main ethnic group in Laos. The Lao people have historical and cultural origins with the Thai people, the main ethnic group in Thailand, and their language and customs are also close to those of the above-mentioned ethnic groups.

The Water Splashing Festival (Dai New Year) is the most distinctive festival of the Dai people. The festival falls in June of the Dai calendar, which is equivalent to April of the Gregorian calendar. On the day of the Water Splashing Festival, people worship Buddha. Girls wash the Buddha's dust with water filled with flowers, and then splash water on each other and wish each other well. At first, they used hands and bowls to splash water, and later they used basins and buckets. They poured and sang at the same time. The more they poured, the more intense they became. The sound of drums, gongs, water splashing, and cheers rang out. During the Water Splashing Festival, traditional entertainment activities such as dragon boat racing, flying lanterns and flying lanterns are also held, as well as various singing and dancing parties. The Dai people take rice as their staple food, and their most distinctive feature is bamboo tube rice. The production method is to put fresh rice into bamboo tubes, add water, and grill it on the fire. It tastes fragrant and delicious. Pu'er tea is a specialty product of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. It was sold to all parts of China in the Tang Dynasty, and to Southeast Asia and South Asia in the Qing Dynasty. It has now entered the markets of Japan, Western Europe and other countries and regions, and has become a well-known tea at home and abroad. Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture is very rich in specialties. There are more than 110 kinds of fruits alone. There are many kinds of animals and plants here. It is the famous "Plant Kingdom" and "Animal Kingdom". In 1991, Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve officially opened the Close-Door Festival to the outside world

The "Open-Door Festival" is called "Jinwa" in Dai language, which means the Buddha enters the temple. The traditional religious festival of the Dai people in Yunnan starts on September 15th of the Dai calendar (mid-July of the lunar calendar) every year and lasts for three months. According to legend, every year in September of the Dai calendar, the Buddha went to the West to preach to his mother, and it took him three months to return to the world. Once, when the Buddha was in the West to preach, thousands of Buddhists went to the countryside to preach, destroying the people's crops and delaying their production. The people complained and were very dissatisfied with the Buddha. When Buddha learned about this, he felt uneasy. From then on, whenever the Buddha came to the West to preach, he gathered all the Buddhists together and stipulated that they were not allowed to go anywhere during these three months and could only repent to atone for their previous sins. Therefore, people call it "Closing Door Festival".

Open Door Festival

"Open Door Festival", also known as "Chuwa", is "Haowasa" in Dai language. Some traditional festivals of the Wa people. Popular in Yunnan, it originates from the ancient Buddhist habit of living in peace during the rainy season, which is similar to the restoration of Buddhism in the Central Plains. The time is on the 15th day of the twelfth month of the Dai calendar (about the middle of the ninth month of the lunar calendar). The Open-Door Festival symbolizes the end of the three-month rainy season and the lifting of the taboo on marriage between men and women since the Close-Door Festival. From now on, young men and women can start free love or hold weddings. On the festival day, young men and women dressed in costumes go to Buddhist temples to worship Buddha and offer food, flowers, wax sticks, and coins as offerings. After the sacrifice is completed, a grand cultural gathering is held to celebrate the end of the fast since the Close-Door Festival. The main contents include setting off sparks and soaring, lighting Kongming lanterns, singing and dancing. The young people will also dance around the village with lanterns in the shapes of various birds, animals, fish, insects, etc. At this time, the rice harvest is completed, so it is also a festival to celebrate the harvest. Open, people can visit the treasure house of nature and appreciate the rich subtropical style.

The Miao nationality is an international ethnic group that originated in China. In the 2000 census, the total population of the Miao nationality was: 894,0116 people, mainly distributed in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hainan, Guangxi, and other provinces (regions). The Miaoling Mountains and Wuling Mountains, where the Miao people live, have a mild climate, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and dotted with large and small fields and dams. The Miao people mainly grow rice, corn, millet, wheat, cotton, flue-cured tobacco, rapeseed, tung oil, etc. The Miao people used to believe in animism, worship nature, and worship their ancestors. "Guzang Festival" is the largest sacrificial activity among the Miao people. Generally, there is a small sacrifice every seven years and a big sacrifice every thirteen years. It is held on Yihai day from October to November of the lunar calendar. At that time, a Guzi ox will be killed, Lusheng dance will be performed, and ancestors will be sacrificed. Invite relatives and friends to gather together during meals in order to enhance feelings and family harmony. Miao Nationality

The main beliefs of the Miao Nationality include nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship and other primitive religious forms. The traditional Miao society is superstitious about ghosts and gods, and witchcraft is prevalent.

The "New Rice Festival" is a day when the rice is ripe, celebrating the harvest, and tasting new rice. Due to climate differences, grains mature at different times in different places. Therefore, the festivals are held at different times in different regions, villages, and even households. However, in the past, it was usually held in the seventh and eighth months of the lunar calendar (ninety-tenth month of the Wa calendar). The first step in determining the date is to choose an auspicious day based on the maturity of the respective grains. The second is to choose the zodiac day when the parents or grandparents passed away as the best day. It is intended to invite the souls of the ancestors to come back, taste new rice with their families, and enjoy happiness. He also asked their spirits in heaven to bless future generations with happy families, good weather and good harvests. In order to allow Wa compatriots from all over the country to celebrate the "New Rice Festival" together, in 1991, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County and Ximeng Wa Autonomous County jointly decided to designate the 14th day of the eighth lunar month every year as the "New Rice Festival" of the Wa people. The traditional New Rice Festival is mostly held by each household alone. On the festival day, the host gets up early and prepares the food and wine for the festival. Then go to the fields to harvest new grain. A bunch of harvested millet is hung on the door to attract the spirit of grain into the home. The remaining grains are rubbed out, dried in an iron pot over low heat, and new rice is pounded out to make rice. Then a family sacrifice ceremony is held: a bowl of new rice is placed on the altar together with various dishes, and the wizard is asked to recite incantations, sacrifice to the grain god, and honor the ancestors. After the ceremony, the whole family, headed by the wizard and the old man, enjoyed tasting the new rice. After that, the owner opened the door of his house and informed the neighbors about the festival. So people came to congratulate with various gifts. The host kills chickens, pigs, and even cattle to entertain the guests, and everyone sings and laughs, sharing the joy of the harvest. The Wa people are good at singing and dancing. Bamboo pole dance, which used to be a dance performed by blessed old people after their death, has become an entertainment dance. The dance form is the same as the bamboo pole dance of the Li ethnic group in Hainan Province, my country. That is, two large bamboo poles are placed flat on the ground. Outside the two large bamboo poles, people work in pairs, facing each other, holding small bamboo poles, sliding and colliding back and forth along the large bamboo poles, and the dancers dance in the gap between the sliding and collision of the two poles. The dance movements imitate the shapes of ants, turtle doves, leopards, thrushes and other animals, and are lively and cheerful. Bamboo pole dance is usually held after the death of a prestigious and influential old man in the village. The dance is performed by hitting the bamboo pole with a pestle. All men, women and children in the village can participate. A local old man said: "Although a person dies, his soul does not die. It will also be inseparable from singing and dancing after it reaches the other world, so people have to sing and dance to send him off." It is this broad-minded view of life and death that creates many funerals of the Wa people. dance.