Folk customs and intangible cultural heritage-Dai Water-Splashing Festival

The Water-Splashing Festival is a traditional festival for the Dai and Thai peoples and Southeast Asia. People from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and other countries, as well as overseas Thai communities such as Kowloon City in Hong Kong and Zhonghe District in New Taipei City in Taiwan, take a bath and pay homage to Buddha when they get up early in the morning. After that, they start celebrating for several consecutive days. During this period, everyone splashed each other with pure clear water, praying to wash away the troubles of the past year.

The Water-Splashing Festival is the Dai New Year, equivalent to mid-April in the Gregorian calendar and generally lasts for 3 to 7 days.

As the Water-Splashing Festival approaches, the Dai family is busy slaughtering pigs, killing chickens, making wine, and making many "Haonoso"(rice cakes) and various cakes made of glutinous rice for consumption during the festival.

The Water-Splashing Festival lasts for three days:

The first day is "Mai Day", which is similar to Lunar New Year's Eve. It is called "Wanduo Shanghan" in Dai language, which means to send the old. At this time, people have to clean up their houses, clean them, and prepare for New Year's meals and various activities such as dragon boat racing, high lifting, and cultural performances.

The second day is called "Anger Day", and "Anger" means "empty". According to custom, this day belongs to neither the previous year nor the next year, so it is called "empty day". On this day, water-splashing activities are usually held to commemorate the goddess who eradicated evil for the people, use holy water to eliminate disasters and avoid disasters, and wish each other peace and happiness;

The third day is called "Maipaya Wanma". It is said that the heroic spirit of Maipaya Wanma returned to the world with the new calendar. People habitually regard this day as the "coming of the king of days" and the New Year's Day in the Dai calendar.