Scenes from the Water Splashing Festival performance (very scaled down winter version).
The sprinkling of water on another is a gesture offering a blessing at the time of the New Year and is common in South East Asian countries, including China's Yunnan province - particularly among the Dai ethnic group. In part, the water symbolises a cleansing of the old, which could bring bad luck in the new year, and the festival usually ends with an exuberant splashing celebration in which it is said that the more drenched one becomes, the more good luck one receives.
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