Folk customs, that is, folk customs, have existed since ancient times. Folk culture refers to a culture created and passed down from generation to generation, which is a folk life culture created and passed down by the middle and lower working people, and it is the foundation and an important part of traditional culture. China has a vast territory and many ethnic groups. As the saying goes, "a thousand miles of different winds and a hundred miles of different customs." All ethnic groups and regions have formed distinctive folk customs in the historical development. China's 56 ethnic groups have different customs in residence, dress, production, transportation, marriage, festivals, etiquette, diet and other aspects. These unique customs and habits reflect the profoundness of Chinese folk customs and Chinese culture in many ways. China has a vast territory, many ethnic groups, a long history, and colorful folk culture, which has been passed down from generation to generation and is fascinating, and has formed an excellent culture of the Chinese nation with distinctive characteristics, occupying an important place in the treasure house of world folk culture. When all countries in the world push natural scenery tourism to the high-level tourism economy trend of humanistic eco-tourism, China should make full use of the unique folk cultural resources, combine the rich and broad natural ecological resources, make a comprehensive and systematic plan, form a folk tourism economy with Chinese national characteristics, and pay attention to the overall development of humanistic eco-tourism, so that China's folk tourism economy can embark on the road of sustainable development and become a new growth pole of the national economy in the future.
The Water-splashing Festival is the most solemn festival of the Dai people, which takes place in the middle of April every year, that is, in the first month of the Dai calendar. Songkran Festival is the Dai New Year. Festivals usually last for three to ten days. On the first day, the Dai language is called "Mairi", which is similar to the New Year's Eve of the lunar calendar. The next day, the Dai language was called "Angry Day" (Empty Day); The third day is the New Year, which is called "Bawangma" (meaning the beginning of the year). People regard this day as the most beautiful and auspicious day. On the morning of the festival, all the men, women and children in the village dressed up to worship the Buddha in the Buddhist temple, and built towers in the temple. A few bamboo schools wrapped in cloth and colored paper were inserted into the spire. People sat around the tower, listening to the Buddha chanting and explaining historical legends. Young men and women flocked up the mountain to pick wild flowers to make greenhouses. At noon, the women each picked a load of clear water and poured it on the Buddha to welcome the dust. Then, men, women and children carry buckets and washbasins, splashing and blessing each other, thinking that this can eliminate disasters and diseases, and be safe and auspicious. Thousands of people danced with the beautiful Dai music, shouting "water! Water! Aquatic products, shouts, drums and gongs resounded through the sky, and the scene was spectacular. During the Songkran Festival, Dai youths like to play games by losing their bags in the glades. The flower bag is sewn with beautiful flowers, filled with cotton paper, cottonseed, etc., and decorated with five spikes at the corners and center. It is a token of love. First, I threw it around aimlessly, and then I gradually got a fixed goal. After the girl consciously let the young man lose, the young man gave the prepared gift to the mother, and both of them left the crowd to fall in love in a quiet place. There will also be a dragon boat rowing competition in the Water-splashing Festival. Thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists gather at the edge of the Lancang River to watch groups of dragon boat races in red and green, and the children of the Dai family sing "Hi! Hi! Hi! "The sound of the whistle, breaking waves and courageously moving forward, added a lot of tension and joy to the festival. Playing Gao Sheng and Kongming Lantern are unique activities in Dai areas. Before the festival, people set up a high-rise frame. At that time, the homemade earth rocket will be ignited. As it spews white smoke, it whizzes into the blue sky, attracting people to look up and cheer from time to time. People will feel more glorious and auspicious if they fly higher and farther, and the winners will win prizes. At night, people lit lanterns and candles in the open space of the square, put them in homemade balloons, and use the buoyancy of the air to fly the lanterns into the sky. Bright lanterns fly higher and higher and farther in the dark night. People use this to commemorate the ancient sage Kong Ming. River boat, elephant foot drum dance, peacock dance, cockfighting, etc. are also the activities of the Water-splashing Festival. In recent years, it has also increased folk customs investigation, economic and trade negotiations and other contents, making the activities of the Water-splashing Festival more colorful. Songkran Festival is held in Xishuangbanna and Dehong at the same time, and both places can fly directly from Kunming.
There is also a beautiful legend about the origin of the Water-sprinkling Festival: long ago, there was a demon king with boundless magic power in the Dai area. He committed all kinds of evils and the people suffered greatly. He occupied six girls successively, and later the most beautiful princess Nanbrown cloth in the world. Seven girls were humiliated and waited for revenge. The clever seven girls got the devil drunk at the banquet and learned his achilles heel from him. One night, when the demon king was drunk and fell asleep, Nan Brown cloth pulled out a hair of the demon king and tied it around his neck, and the demon king's head immediately fell to the ground. But the blood dripping from the devil turned into a raging fire and quickly spread to the world. Nan brown cloth quickly picked up the devil, and the fire on the ground went out. As soon as it was put down, the fire started again. So the seven girls took turns to hold the devil's head, while others poured water on her. It lasted for 999 days before the fire was put out, and the villagers lived a happy life again. In memory of these seven girls; Therefore, on the day of putting out evil fires every year, water is poured on each other to wash away the fatigue and filth of the year, congratulate each other and greet the coming of the New Year, thus forming the Water-splashing Festival.
Water-splashing Festival is not only a traditional festival of Dai people, but also an important symbol of Dai people and the essence of Dai traditional culture. If we simply regard it as a festival and don't understand, develop, publicize and use it from the depth, its tourism economic benefits will not be highlighted. In splendid china and in folk villages, the Water-Splashing Festival has been moved to the stage, so that tourists can have fun with it and form an interactive atmosphere, which has greatly promoted the development of local tourism. In Sichuan and Yunnan, various water-splashing festivals have appeared on stage, which not only enhances the attraction of local tourism, but also promotes the development of local economy. The role of folk customs in the development of tourism can be summarized as follows:
1. Observing customs is an important driving force to promote the development of tourism.
Folk customs are a mirror of society, by which we can understand the sufferings and living conditions of the people and examine the political gains and losses. In ancient times, from emperors to officials in prefectures and counties, all of them traveled by observing the wind and observing the customs. It not only promotes the development of tourism, but also enriches folk information and adds tourism resources.
2. Folklore enriches the contents of tourism, enriches the cultural knowledge of tourists, and enables tourists to enjoy spiritually.
Engels once divided human life into three aspects: survival, enjoyment and development, and self-expression. Tourism obviously does not belong to the category of survival needs, but a high-level cultural life with the purpose of enjoying beauty and obtaining spiritual pleasure. China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group has splendid culture and colorful folk customs. Different nationalities have different folk customs; There are also differences in folk customs in different regions of the same nation. The novelty, strangeness, beauty and joy of folk culture attract tourists to leave their place of residence to travel to tourist destinations, and the folklore of tourist destinations has become one of the most important ornamental contents for tourists. Folk customs not only reflect the history of the tourist destination, but also reflect the cultural and social life of the tourist destination. Viewing and inspecting the folk customs of tourist destinations is also a cognitive process of tourist destinations, which can not only help tourists broaden their horizons, but also increase their interest and pleasure in tourism. In the water-splashing festival, tourists can not only experience the unique ethnic customs of the Dai people, but also learn about the knowledge of re-education of the Dai people.
3. Folklore can provide first-hand information for the development of tourist attractions
One of the central contents of tourism activities is to visit tourist attractions. In the days when China is about to enter the 21st century, the tourism industry is developing at an unprecedented speed. It is an urgent task to protect the inherent ecological balance of tourist attractions, develop new tourist resources and build new tourist attractions. With the arrival of "cultural tourism fever" in the new century, the image reappearance of ancient folk culture and traditional folk customs in various historical periods, nationalities and regions can better stimulate and satisfy the curiosity of people living in modern society. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the excavation and research of folk information, increase the investment in folk development and accelerate the productization of folk tourism to meet the needs of the times.
At present, there are a lot of problems in the development of folk tourism. The main problems are:
1. Folk culture has been diluted. Take Wu Culture Park in Wuxi as an example, it is a theme park that has succeeded in excavating folk culture in Wu. People can enjoy the traditional customs and culture of Wudi for thousands of years here. However, its popularity in the park is not high, and articles promoting and introducing it are rarely seen in newspapers and periodicals, which is not conducive to organizing tourists.
2. Folk culture has been assimilated. Before the reform and opening up, the folk culture of some ethnic minorities in remote areas could be inherited from generation to generation because of their little contact with the outside world. However, with the opening of the country and the intervention of foreign cultures, the folk culture of tourist destinations has been diluted and assimilated. For example, before the development of Xiangxi, there were a lot of simple folk customs and people's feelings. However, when foreign tourists entered, they were replaced by shirts, suits, all kinds of popular long skirts, and fewer people wore national costumes. The streets paved with bluestones and diaojiao buildings with national characteristics were replaced by asphalt roads and cement buildings, and the local traditions and culture gradually disappeared.
3. Folk culture is vulgarized. The charm of folk tourism is endless, which does not mean that folk tourism resources can be easily developed at will. The reason why folk tourism has a strong attraction lies in its profound cultural connotation, rather than the kind of random copying, blind construction, and emphasis on economy over culture. For example, in some places in Guilin, people are forced to "donate" under the guise of folk customs performances. As a result, tourists shout and fall for it, so they stay away from it. In other places, so-called literary masterpieces such as The Journey to the West and The List of Gods are picked up in beautiful tourist attractions, which are not only rough in craftsmanship, but also attract tourists with feudal superstitions and even scary things, and eventually end up as a "with ever fewer chariots and horses at her door".
there is no doubt that the development of folk culture tourism plays an important role. The golden age of popular cultural tourism has arrived all over the world. With the growth of global economy, the increase of people's leisure time and income, and the continuous progress of transportation and communication technology, the global popular folk culture tourism is emerging from the peaceful and moral international environment and has always maintained a strong momentum of business development. China, as a country rich in folk culture tourism resources, has a solid foundation and strong guarantee for the development of folk culture tourism. The whole society will develop and make good use of folk culture tourism resources reasonably and avoid the destruction of folk customs in development, which will surely make China's tourism industry develop rapidly.