The Water-Splashing Festival of Dai is celebrated as the most important holiday by the Dai community. The festival is held according to the months of the Dai calender and accordingly, it is held in the sixth month of every year, that is, around the English month of April. The Water-Splashing Festival of Dai is also referred to as the Festival for Bathing the Buddha. Today, it is a fun filled festival, where people drench each other with lots of water accompanied by song and dance, dragon-boat competitions, the firing of rockets, the flying of colorful Kongming lanterns, parades as well as fairs.

The origin of the Water-Splashing Festival is highly debated. There are a number of stories or legends about its origin. One such story is that, once upon a time there lived a devil in the village of the Dai people, who had seven wives. Tired of his atrocities, the wives conspired with the villagers to kill the him. Then, in the sixth month of the year, his wives cut off his head from his body, but the blood would not stop flowing from the head.

So, each wife took turn to hold the head to stop the blood. This lasted for seven years. Every year the villagers would splash water on the wife, who had held the head for the last one year to wash off the blood and tiredness off her.

Ethnic Minority Festivals of China

Water-Splashing Festival

Torch Festival of Yi

Knife-Pole Festival of Lisu