Dai people's custom of water-splashing festival

Dai Songkran Festival The brief introduction of Dai Songkran Festival should be brief, just a small diary with two and a half pages.

Songkran Festival is the biggest festival of Dai people, and it is also the festival with the greatest influence and the largest number of participants among ethnic festivals in Yunnan Province. Songkran Festival is the New Year of Dai calendar, which is equivalent to mid-April of Gregorian calendar and generally lasts for 3 to 7 days. The first day is called "Mairi" in Dai language, which is similar to the New Year's Eve of the lunar calendar. The next day, the Dai language is called "angry day" (empty day); The third day is the New Year, called "Overlord Horse", which is actually the first day of the year. People think this day is the most beautiful and auspicious day. In the early morning of the festival, Dai men, women and children put on festive costumes, carried clear water, went to the Buddhist temple to bathe the Buddha, and then began to splash water on each other to wish each other luck, happiness and health. People are dancing and shouting "water! Water! Water! " The sound of gongs and drums resounded through the sky, and blessed water splashed everywhere. The scene is really spectacular. During the Songkran Festival, Dai youth like to play the game of losing packets in the open space in the forest. The flower bag is made of beautiful cotton cloth, which contains cotton paper and cottonseed. The four corners and the center are decorated with five spikes, which is a symbol of love. Young men and women know each other through packet loss and packet reception. After the girl consciously let the young man suffer, the young man will both leave the crowd and go to a quiet place to fall in love. During the Songkran Festival, there will be dragon boat races. The competition will be held on the Lancang River. Groups of red and green dragon boats will break through the waves with the gong of "Tang Tang", the cry of "Hey, Hey, Hey" and the whistle, attracting thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists to the Lancang River. It adds a lot of tension and joy to the festival. "Flying high" and Kongming Lantern are also unique activities in Dai areas. People set up air defense racks before the festival, and then they will ignite homemade rockets and let them fly into the blue sky screaming. The higher and farther they fly, the more glorious and auspicious they feel. Winners will also receive prizes. In the evening, people will light lanterns and candles in the open space of the square and put them in their big balloons. Flying "Kongming Lantern" in memory of ancient sage Kongming (Zhuge Liang). In addition, boat release, elephant foot drum dance, peacock dance and cockfighting are also activities during the Water-splashing Festival. In recent years, the activities of the Songkran Festival have become more colorful. Songkran Festival is held in Xishuangbanna and Dehong every year. You can fly directly to the west from Kunming. On April 6th, Premier Zhou Enlai attended the Xishuangbanna Water-splashing Festival. Since then, the scale of the Songkran Festival has been growing year by year.

Dai people write 400 words on the Water-splashing Festival.

The origin and legend of the Water-splashing Festival is an annual traditional festival of the Dai people (April 13 to 15 in the solar calendar). Dai language calls it "cold combined with cold", that is, "June New Year" or "Dai calendar New Year". In fact, the Songkran Festival is the first day of the Dai calendar, and the New Year begins in June. However, there are two legends about the origin of the Songkran Festival. Robbed seven beautiful girls to be his wives. Filled with hatred, the girls came up with a way to kill the devil. One night, the youngest girl drunk the devil with the best wine and meat, which exposed his fatal weakness. It turned out that this fearless devil was afraid to strangle himself with his own hair, and the alert little girl carefully tore off one of the devil's red hair and strangled him. It turned into a fireball, and wherever it rolled, the evil fire spread. Bamboo houses were burned and crops were burned. In order to put out the evil fire, the little girl grabbed the devil's head, and the other six girls took turns splashing water on it. Finally, the evil fire was put out in June of the Dai calendar. The villagers began to live and work in peace and contentment. Since then, there has been the custom of splashing water every year. Now, the custom of splashing water has actually become a form of mutual blessing. Water is a symbol of sacredness, beauty and light. Everything in the world needs water to grow, and water is the god of life. The story of the Dai Water-splashing Festival in Huaping, Lijiang is unique. The Dai people here are the northernmost Dai people in China and even in Asia. Their story goes like this: It is said that a long time ago, A Dai village near the Jinsha River lived in the depths of a dense forest, and the villagers were in danger of being swallowed up by a forest fire. A man named Li Liang, a native of A Dai, took buckets of water from Jinsha River and sprinkled it on the mountain fire in order to protect the village from the fire. After a day and a night of hard work, the mountain fire was finally put out and the villagers were saved. Li Liang was so tired that he was sweating and thirsty. The villagers sent clean water to quench Li Liang's thirst, but he couldn't quench his thirst after drinking 99 barrels of water. Later, Li Liang jumped into the river and became a success. He became a big tree. To commemorate Li Liang, every year on the third day of the third lunar month, the Dai people clean every household, sprinkle pine leaves, and set up a half-mile-long green shed by the selected river or well. Thick pine needles are scattered under the shed, and water tanks filled with water are placed on both sides. At noon, when the sun is at its highest point, people walk under the shed and spray pine branches on each other to express their memory of Li Liang and wish for the New Year. It has become a festival for Dai people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, wishing them good luck. The water-splashing festival is coming, and the Dai people are busy killing pigs, chickens and making wine. They also have to make many "rice cakes" and Baba made of various glutinous rice to eat during festivals.

Dai water-splashing festival custom

1. Every Songkran Festival, the Dai people will collect some flowers and leaves on the nearby mountains. On the day of the festival, Dai men, women and children put on festive costumes and carried clear water. They first went to the Buddhist temple to bathe the Buddha, then dipped the collected flowers and leaves in the water and began to splash water on each other.

2. A blossoming spray blooms in the air, symbolizing auspiciousness, happiness and health. The bright and glittering water drops in young people's hands also symbolize sweet love. Everyone threw water at each other, and there were baptisms, blessings and songs everywhere. Water splashing is laughing, and the water splashing festival has become an ocean of joy.

3. Apart from splashing water, the contents of the Water-Splashing Festival also include the customs of grabbing swings, dragon boat racing, bathing Buddha, chanting, peacock dance dancing, losing packets, flying high and flying lanterns.

Extended data:

1, a dragon boat race will be held during the Songkran Festival. The competition was held on the Lancang River. Groups of dragon boats, dressed in red and green, beat the waves with gongs, shouts and whistles, attracting thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists to the Lancang River, adding a lot of tension and joy to the festival.

2. Playing Gaosheng and Kongming Lantern are also unique activities in Dai areas. People set up anti-aircraft racks before the festival, and then lit the homemade earth rocket and let it fly into the blue sky screaming. Winners will also receive prizes. In the evening, people lit candles in the open space of the square and used the buoyancy of hot air to release the "Kongming Lantern" to commemorate the ancient sage Kongming (Zhuge Liang).