The Water Splashing Festival falls during the New Year of the Dai Calendar. It is the most important festival observed by the Dai ethnic group in Xishuangbanna Prefecture in southwestern China's Yunnan Province. The festival is similar to Thailand's Songkran, three days of unbridled festivities in which everybody gets doused with water.
The festivall usually lasts for three days. In the first two days, Dai people hold dragon boat race to ring out the old year and usher in the new year. The third day is for water splashing and is the climax of the festival. On that day, Dai people put on their new clothes and assemble at a lcaol buddhist temple, where they listen to the chanting of Buddhist scipture. Afterward, a Buddhist statue is coaxed out to the temple yard with pomp and ceremony, where it is splashed. The ritual is called bathing the Buddha. People then go to the streets, joyfully joining in a battle of water splashing onto each other. The city soon becomes a sea of billow and spray.
Water is regarded as a symbol of holiness, goodness and brightness by the Dai ethnic people. The water splashing onto each other symbolizes good wishes