| Description |
The Bun huột nặm Water Splashing New Year's Festival of the Lào is held to welcome the New Year of the Lao people in Dien Bien province. The main festival is the traditional New Year of the Lao people - April 13, 14 and 15 every year according to the Buddhist calendar. In Lao, “Bun” means festival or New Year, or also means blessing; “Huot” means to splash, “Nam” means water. “Bun Huot Nam” means Water Festival or Water Splashing New Year's Festival.
The “Bun Huot Nam” festival consists of 2 parts: the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony usually begins with rituals to worship the village and ancestors to send off the dry season, wash away the bad luck of the old year and show gratitude to the gods and ancestors for giving favorable weather, good crops, healthy and lucky people. After the ceremony ends, the shaman will use a fragrant water made from herbs and sprinkle it on everyone present at the ceremony to pray for good luck. Offering to the village and the gods is a profound spiritual ritual of the Lao people.
After the ceremony of offering to the gods, the celebrant will lead everyone to the bank of Nặm Núa stream to pray for rain. The celebrant will thank the river god and the stream god and pray for favorable weather for the villagers. All the offerings will then be divided equally among everyone for good luck. After the rain-praying ceremony, everyone goes down to the stream to splash water on each other to wish for good health and the villagers will bring water back to splash on their houses, worship items, livestock and production tools, because they believe that water will help wash away bad things, diseases and wish for a long, clean and healthy new year. The celebrant leads the group of people around the village, stopping by all the families to wish them a happy new year and good luck, especially those families that are successful in business and have prestige in the community to "ask for luck". The elderly will perform the ritual of praying for luck, the “wrist-tying” ceremony for everyone. This ritual prays for everyone’s luck, health, and peace.
The festival includes many unique traditional folk games of the Lao people, such as: Turtle hatching eggs (tấu phá sắc - táu lasa), tiger catching pig (xưa khốp mu), snake catching vine (ngù kin khiết), foot-catching dance (phăn viêng), picking ripe melons (pít mắc tanh), lam vông dance... These are folk games that recreate the settlement and village-building process of the Lao people.
The Bun huột nặm Water Splashing New Year's Festival is associated with the settlement and village-building process, and has been preserved and conserved by the Lao people in Na Sang 1 village, Nua Ngam commune, Dien Bien district for a long time. Bun huột nặm Water Splashing New Year's Festival is also an opportunity for the villagers to be creative, perform folk games, traditional dances, and especially the water-splashing custom of the Lao people. The Bun huột nặm Water Splashing New Year's Festival of the Lào in Na Sang 1 village, Nua Ngam commune, Dien Bien district was recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2017. |
