Yunnan Events

Yunnan’s festival calendar is the richest in China, because twenty-five peoples each keep their own.

Water Splashing Festival — mid-April, Xishuangbanna

The Dai new year, and the province’s largest celebration. It runs for three days: the first is for markets and dragon boat races on the Lancang river, the second for bathing the Buddha images, and the third for the water itself — everyone in the street throws water over everyone else, originally as a gentle blessing sprinkled with a branch and now with buckets, hoses and water pistols. Being soaked is the blessing, and refusing it is the only discourtesy. Evening brings sky lanterns and fireworks. It is the same festival as Thai Songkran and Lao Pi Mai, which is a reminder of how far south Yunnan reaches culturally.

Torch Festival — June or July, Yi areas

The Yi new year, with enormous bonfires, torch processions through the fields to drive out pests and evil, wrestling, horse racing and courtship dancing. Held across the east of the province and in Chuxiong.

Third Month Fair — April, Dali

A Bai market and festival beneath the Cangshan mountains that has run for over a thousand years, combining trade, horse racing and Buddhist observance.

Sanduo and the minority calendar — through the year

The Naxi Sanduo festival in February honours their protective deity; the Bai keep the Raosanling pilgrimage in April, walking between three temples over three days with music and dancing; and the Hani hold Kuzhazha in June. Yunnan has a minority festival somewhere in almost every week of the year, and the tourist bureaus publish calendars — asking locally is the better way to find the unstaged ones.

Flooded terraces — November to March

Not a festival, but the fixed season for Yuanyang and the reason photographers come.