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Story 146: The Origin of the Dai Water-Splashing Festival

The Origin of the Dai Water-Splashing Festival

Author: Anonymous

Long, long ago, there was a vicious demon king. He had magic power. He could not float away when he fell into the water, nor could he be burned when he fell into the water, nor could he be cut by a knife, stabbed by a gun, or shot by a bow and arrow. He was arrogant and conceited because of his extraordinary magic power. He was domineering and did evil all day long. At that time, there were 16 layers of heaven, and he became the overlord of one of them.

He oppressed and plundered the people and did all kinds of evil. He already had six beautiful wives, but if any family had a beautiful daughter, he would take her as his wife. Once, he saw a princess in the human world named Lan Zongbu, who was more beautiful than his six wives, so he robbed her and made her his seventh wife.

One June, it was the day of the Chinese New Year in the human world. The demon king congratulated Lan Zongbu on the New Year and invited the demon ministers and generals to drink and have fun in the palace. After three rounds of drinking, both the host and the guests were already drunk. Nan Zongbu took the opportunity to praise the devil: “My noble king, you have boundless magic power and noble virtue. With your prestige, you can conquer heaven, hell and the human world. You should be the master of the three realms.”

The devil was very proud of hearing this. He pondered for a while, turned to his beloved wife and said: “I can indeed conquer the three realms. No one knows my weaknesses.” Nan Zongbu then asked: “How can the king have such magic power?” The devil whispered: “I am afraid that someone will pull out my hair and strangle my neck, which will separate my head from my body. You must always watch me.” Nan Zongbu pretended to be surprised and asked: “How can a king who can conquer the three realms be afraid of hair?”

The devil whispered again: “Although the hair is small, it can break my neck and I will die.” After hearing this, Nan Zongbu secretly made up her mind. So she continued to pour wine for the devil until the banquet was over, and then she helped the devil to bed and fell asleep. At this time, she carefully pulled out a hair of the devil, and strangled the devil’s neck before the devil woke up. The devil’s head immediately fell to the ground, and every drop of blood dripping from his head turned into a ball of fire, burning fiercely and quickly spreading to the human world.

At this time, Nan Zongbu hurriedly held the devil’s head, and the flames on the earth went out, but as soon as the head was put down, the fire burned again. So the six wives of the king also came, and they took turns holding the devil’s head, so that the fire did not burn. Later, Nan Zongbu returned to the human world, but she was still covered in blood.

In order to wash off the blood on her body, people poured water on her. The blood was finally washed away, and Nan Zongbu lived happily in the human world. After Nan Zongbu died, in order to commemorate her, people splashed water on each other every New Year, using clean water to wash off the dirt on their bodies and usher in an auspicious new year.