Water Festival

Last updated April 16, 2024

This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjunctsinstead of Indic text.

The Water Festival is the New Year's celebrations that take place in Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia as well as among the Xishuangbanna Prefecture of China, and the southern parts of Vietnam.^[1] It is part of the broader South and Southeast Asian solar New Year. It is called the 'Water Festival' by Westerners because they notice people splashing or pouring water at one another as part of the cleansing ritual to welcome the Songkran New Year. Traditionally, people gently sprinkled water on one another as a sign of respect, but as the new year falls during the hottest month in South East Asia, many people end up dousing strangers and passers-by in vehicles in boisterous celebration. The act of pouring water is also a show of blessings and good wishes. It is believed that at this Water Festival, everything old must be thrown away, or it will bring the owner bad luck.^[2]

China

The annual Water Splashing Festival of the Dai ethnic minority falls during the New Year celebrations of the Dai Calendar. It is the most important festival observed by the Dai ethnic people of Dehong Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, and, similar to its direct neighbour Laos' Songkran festival, it involves three days of celebrations that include sincere, yet light-hearted religious rituals that invariably end in merrymaking, where everyone ends up getting splashed, sprayed or doused with water.

The festival lasts for four days. The first two days' activities are concentrated on the banks of the Lancang (Mekong) River. On the first day, a grand celebration marks the beginning of the festival. An outdoor market is set up, where locals go for new year shopping. It is also a great place to purchase local souvenirs. Local food and snacks are other highlights traveller may not want to miss. Artists create sand carvings in open spaces close to the market. A dragon boat race is held on the Lancang River to ring out the old year in the afternoon. At night, the banks of the river are colorfully lit, and locals float river lanterns on the river. Floating river lanterns are an old tradition in China, which is still preserved in many cities today. The practice is thought to drive bad luck away and bring good luck.

On the third day, the climax of the festival is reserved for water splashing. On that day, Dai put on their newest and best clothes, then assemble at the local Buddhist temple, where the monks chant Buddhist scriptures. Afterward, a symbolic water splashing ritual is enacted whereby a Buddhist statue, with pomp and ceremony, is first coaxed out of the temple to the courtyard, then is splashed with water. This important ritual is called 'Bathing the Buddha'.

The completion of the 'Bathing the Buddha' ritual serves as the signal that encourages ordinary mortals to themselves engage in mutual water splashing. Accordingly, people flock to the streets with pots, pans, bottles, or whatever, where they uninhibitedly splash, spray and douse each other with water, with the same gusto with which Westerners engage in a good snowball free-for-all.

The Water Splashing ceremony, however, is more than just good-natured fun; it also contains a religious element: water is regarded by Dai as a symbol, firstly, of religious purity, but also of goodwill among people. Therefore, splashing a fellow human being with water during the Water Splashing Festival, whether a close neighbor or a fellow villager or even a stranger, is an expression of the desire for good luck and prosperity to that person.

In Yunnan province of China, the Water Splashing Festival is celebrated by the Dai ethnic group which is one of the 55 ethnic minorities in China. The whole celebration usually starts on the 13th of April and takes 3–7 days. On the first day of the festival, Dai people race dragon boats and light fireworks (made of bamboo) for good luck in the coming years. On the second day, Dai people get together to dance, and pour water on others because they believe that pouring water on others can help remove bad luck and bring out happiness. Finally, on the last day of the festival, young generations will get together to exchange gifts and date their mates. The Water Splashing Festival is one of the most influential ethnic festivals in Yunnan area. It attracts thousands of tourists every year from all over China. The huge tourist industry contributes greatly to the development of the area.

Southeast Asia

The festival is common throughout mainland Southeast Asia and has different names specific to each country, such as Peemai (new year) Songkran in Laos, Songkran or Peemai (new year) in Thailand, Chaul Chnam Khmer in Cambodia, and Thingyan in Myanmar.

The New Year is celebrated in other South Asian countries, based on the astrological event of the sun beginning its northward journey. Traditional dance, singing and cultural shows are performed together during the festival. Religious activities in the tradition of Theravada Buddhism are also carried out at both pagoda and monastery. Young people visit elders to pay respect during this period.

The Myanmar New Year Thingyan is announced by the traditional calendar of Myanmar Team and normally falls around 13 April. Cambodia celebrates the Cambodian New Year from 14 to 16 April (ចូលឆ្នាំខ្មែរ or សង្ក្រាន្ត). The Lao New Year, called Songkan (ສົງກຣານ) in the Lao language, is celebrated every year from 13 to 15 April. The Thai New Year or Songkran (สงกรานต์) is fixed every year from 13 to 15 April.

"Water Festival" is often a confusing term for foreigners in Cambodia because the Khmer New Year in April is not normally referred to as "The Water Festival", unlike equivalent new year celebrations in neighbouring countries. Rather, the "Water Festival" in Cambodia usually refers to the festival Bon Om Thook (Khmer:ពិធីបុណ្យអុំទូក) focused on traditional boat racing, which usually takes place in November each year.

Legend of the Water Splashing Festival: In the distant times, the people of Xishuangbanna lived in abundance and peace. One day there came a demon king who jeopardized the people by making the land so dry that the farmers could not grow food. The seven daughters of the Dai King were all worried about their father and the people [11].The wisest of the youngest daughters came up with a plan: kill the demon king while he was asleep. So the seven sisters went into action and cut off the head of the demon king with their sharp swords[12].But the devil's head suddenly caught fire and burned wherever it rolled.In a hurry, the daughters rushed to find water to put out the fire.From then on, the people of Banna returned to their original lives, and in order to commemorate and thank the seven princesses for what they had done, water splashing has been passed down as a custom to this day.

The water used should be the cleanest water according to Dai customs, and the water beaten early in the morning of the first day can be dipped from a silver bowl with a branch of Burmese cinnamon and dabbed onto each other's shoulders;If in Jinghong and other cities, you can find all the water containers (such as high-pressure water gun), filled with tap water and violently splashed, the more water splashed the more blessings.

The Water Splashing Festival is an important national traditional festival of the Dai people in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, with celebrations similar to those in neighboring Laos.

Other similarities

In Vietnam, Lễ hội làm chay is another water festival mainly celebrated in the parts of the Southern Vietnam. It’s only held at January 14-16 of the Vietnamese lunar calendar, different to the one celebrating on April.

During festivals, along the roads, many young people use spray hoses, brasses, and buckets to splash water on passersby. Some groups even used trucks to carry water to splash around in the neighborhood.

List of new years

Local name festival	Country	Begin	End	Water Festival (Y/N)
Pi Mai/Songkran	Laos	14 April	16 April	Yes
Songkran	Thailand	13 April	15 April	Yes
Sangken	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam (India)	14 April	16 April	Yes
Thingyan	Myanmar	13 April	16 April	Yes
Chaul Chnam Thmey	Cambodia	14 April	16 April	Yes
Poshuijie	Yunnan (China)	13 April	15 April	Yes
Pahela Baishakh	Bangladesh,	14 April	14 April	No
Aluth Avurudda	Sri Lanka	14 April	14 April	No
Puthandu	India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, Sri Lanka	14 April	14 April	No

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mekong</span> Major river in Southeast Asia

The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and a drainage area of 795,000 km² (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km³ (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through Southwest China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in the 2000s through the 2020s has caused serious problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought.

Thai New Year or Songkran, also known as Songkran Festival, Songkran Splendours, is the Thai New Year's national holiday. Songkran is on 13 April every year, but the holiday period extends from 14 to 15 April. In 2018 the Thai cabinet extended the festival nationwide to seven days, 9–16 April, to enable citizens to travel home for the holiday. In 2019, the holiday was observed 9–16 April as 13 April fell on a Saturday. The word "Songkran" comes from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti, literally "astrological passage", meaning transformation or change. It coincides with the rising of Aries on the astrological chart and with the New Year of many calendars of Southeast and South Asia, in keeping with the Buddhist calendar and also coincides with New Year in Hindu calendar such as Vishu, Bihu, Pohela Boishakh, Pana Sankranti, Vaisakhi. The New Year takes place at around the same time as the new year celebrations of many regions of South Asia like China, India, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture</span> Autonomous prefecture in Yunnan Province, China

Xishuangbanna, sometimes shortened to Banna, is an autonomous prefecture for Dai people in the extreme south of Yunnan Province, China, bordering both Myanmar and Laos. The prefectural seat is Jinghong, the largest settlement in the area and one that straddles the Mekong, called the "Lancang River" in Chinese.

The Dai people are several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of China's Yunnan Province. The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. By extension, the term can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Yai, Lue, Chinese Shan, Tai Dam, Tai Khao or even Tai in general. For other names, see the table below.

The Achang, also known as the Ngac'ang is an ethnic group. They are one of Tibeto-Burman languages speaking people. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live in Myanmar, where they're known as Maingtha in Shan State and Ngochang in Kachin State.

Jinghong is a city in and the seat of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in the far south of China's Yunnan province, and the historic capital of the former Tai kingdom of Sipsongpanna.

Dousing is the practice of making something or someone wet by throwing liquid over them, e.g., by pouring water, generally cold, over oneself. A related practice is ice swimming. Some consider cold water dousing to be a form of asceticism.

Romvong, Lamvong or Ramwong, Rambung, Vietnamese: lăm-vông) is a type of Southeast Asian dance where both females and males dance in a circle. It is a popular folk-dance in Xishuangbanna (China), Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand. It is a slow round dance continuously moving in a circular manner, and incorporates graceful hand movements and simple footwork. Both men and women participate in the same circle.

Tai Lue or Xishuangbanna Dai is a Tai language of the Lu people, spoken by about 700,000 people in Southeast Asia. This includes 280,000 people in China (Yunnan), 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Laos, 83,000 in Thailand and 4,960 in Vietnam. The language is similar to other Tai languages and is closely related to Kham Mueang or Tai Yuan, which is also known as Northern Thai language. In Yunnan, it is spoken in all of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County in Pu'er City.

Puthandu, also known as Tamil New Year, is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar that is traditionally celebrated as a festival by Tamils. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the solar Hindu calendar, as the first day of the month of Chittirai. It falls on or about 14 April every year on the Gregorian calendar. The same day is observed elsewhere in South and South East Asia as the traditional new year, but it is known by other names such as Vishu in Kerala, and Vaisakhi or Baisakhi in central and northern India.

Laotian Canadians, are Canadian citizens of Laotian origin or descent. In the 2016 Census, 24,580 people indicated Laotian ancestry. Bilateral relations between Canada and Laos were established in 1954 with the formalization of the independence of the Kingdom of Laos from France. In August 2015, Canada's first resident diplomat opened the Office of the Embassy of Canada in Vientiane, Laos.

Lao New Year, called Pi Mai or less commonly Songkan, is celebrated every year from 13 or 14 April to 15 or 16 April.

Thingyan is the Myanmar New Year festival that usually occurs in middle of April. It is a Buddhist festival celebrated over a period of four to five days, culminating in the New Year. The dates of the Thingyan Festival are calculated according to the Burmese calendar. The dates of the festival are observed as public holidays throughout Myanmar, and are part of the summer holidays at the end of the school year. Water-throwing or dousing one another from any shape or form of vessel or device that delivers water is the distinguishing feature of this festival and may be done on the first four days of the festival. The New Year takes place at virtually the same time as the new year celebrations of many countries in South Asia like China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka.

The largest of the ethnic groups in Cambodia are the Khmer, who comprise 95.8% of the total population and primarily inhabit the lowland Mekong subregion and the central plains. The Khmer historically have lived near the lower Mekong River in a contiguous arc that runs from the southern Khorat Plateau where modern-day Thailand, Laos and Cambodia meet in the northeast, stretching southwest through the lands surrounding Tonle Sap lake to the Cardamom Mountains, then continues back southeast to the mouth of the Mekong River in southeastern Vietnam.

Pana Sankranti,, also known as Maha Bishuba Sankranti, is the traditional new year day festival of Odia people in Odisha, India. The festival occurs in the solar Odia calendar on the first day of the traditional solar month of Meṣa, hence equivalent lunar month Baisakha. This falls on the Purnimanta system of the Indian Hindu calendar. It therefore falls on 13/14 April every year on the Gregorian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tai peoples</span> Descendants of speakers of a common Tai language

Tai peoples are the populations who speak the Tai languages. There are a total of about 93 million people of Tai ancestry worldwide, with the largest ethnic groups being Dai, Thais, Isan, Tai Yai (Shan),Tai Lai (Shanni), Lao, Tai Ahom, Tai Meitei and Northern Thai peoples.

The Water-Sprinkling Festival or Water-Splashing Festival, is a major and traditional festival of the Dai nationality marking the New Year, and shares similar roots with the Songkran (Thailand). The Dai are an ethnic minority of China who primarily live in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in southern Yunnan, and their predominant religion is Theravada Buddhism. This festival occurs on the 6th month of the Dai calendar, which usually corresponds to mid-April of the Gregorian calendar. Additionally, it is known as the Festival for Bathing the Buddha, and typically lasts for three days.

Songkran is the water-splashing festival celebration of Tai peoples in traditional new year for Buddhist calendar widely celebrated across South and Southeast Asia in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam and Xishuangbanna, China begins on 13th April of the year.

The peacock dance or peafowl dance is a traditional Asian folk dance that describes the beauty and the movement of peacocks. There are several peacock dance traditions developed in Asia, among others are peacock dances of Myanmar, and in the western and northern parts of Cambodia, West Java in Indonesia, also peacock dances of Indian subcontinent in Southern India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Sangrai is the name of the New Year celebration of the Bangladeshi Marma and Rakhine ethnic groups, which is celebrated from April 13 to 15 every year. Although it is one of the main traditional ceremonies of the Marmas, the Rakhine also celebrate the New Year with their own rules. In the case of the Marmas, it is celebrated according to their Burmese calendar. The calendar of the Marmas is called "Mraima Sakraoy". The Marmaras observe Sangrai as a total of three days, including the last two days of the old year and the first day of the new year. Earlier, according to "Mraima Sacramento", these three days fell in the middle of April of the English calendar, but now they are observed on April 13, 14 and 15 in line with the English calendar. The traditional games of the Marmas are also held on the morning of the 13th with Pangchowai, the main Sangrai on the 14th and the water on the 15th.

References

↑ Deason, Rachel (28 April 2018). "An Introduction to China's Dai People". Culture Trip.
↑ Lu, Hsin-chun Tasaw (2008). "Negotiating Ethnicity: Burmese Chinese Migrants in Taiwan". Journal of Burma Studies. 12: 29–62. doi:10.1353/jbs.2008.0001. S2CID 154656569.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Deason, Rachel (28 April 2018). "An Introduction to China's Dai People". Culture Trip.

[2] Lu, Hsin-chun Tasaw (2008). "Negotiating Ethnicity: Burmese Chinese Migrants in Taiwan". Journal of Burma Studies. 12: 29–62. doi:10.1353/jbs.2008.0001. S2CID 154656569.

[1]

[2]