Southern China's traditional water festival celebrated
Entertainment
Southern China's traditional water festival celebrated
Drought cut the New Year celebrations short for China's ethnic Dai minority in the southwest province of Yunnan. Traditionally, the Dai ethnic group, concentrated in southwest China, celebrates their new year in mid-April with a day-long Water Splashing Festival that brings more than 1 million locals and tourists onto the streets for a festive soaking. With much of parched southwest China struggling under a drought that has hit more than 25 million people and 18 million heads of livestock, the festival was restricted to just two hours. But that did not stop Xishuangbanna city's residents from preparing their buckets and water pistols. The extravagant water fight plays a highly significant role in Dai culture, culture expert Zheng Peng said, representing abundance and blessings for the New Year and staving off drought. Alongside the water splashing, the region also held dragon boat races, and a water collection ritual in which monks prayed for rain over a jar of water collected from a lake by young women in traditional outfits. Yunnan province has been hardest hit by the drought, China's English language newspaper the China Daily said, affecting over 80 percent of rapeseed, sugarcane, tobacco, tea and flower production industries. The drought, the worst to have hit the region in a century, could affect China's hydroelectric output and lead to power shortages, leaders have warned, and has driven up grain and edible oil prices.
