Episode 8 - Eternal Celebrations

Eternal Celebrations

The Lancang-Mekong River area probably sees more festivals than any other region in the world. Some still observed today are very ancient and from them we can gain a sense of the feelings of the local people. But festivals can be very cohesive for a nation, as when preparing for a common festival, people sharing a common culture and values are brought together and feel very close.

Eternal Celebrations

The peoples living in this region not only share a similar cultural background, but often even the same festivals, as in the case of Spring Festival and Water Splashing Festival…and apart from these commonly-shared festivals, each nation has its own…such as Thailand’s Umbrella Festival and Elephant festival, Cambodian’s Water Festival, and the Dragon and Torch festivals in China’s Yunnan Province.

Eternal Celebrations

By enabling us to share the experience of a Lao girl participating in a unique beauty competition during Water Splashing Festival, and by letting us observe preparations for Spring Festival activities in Vietnam, and much more besides, this program explains a little of the relationship between festivals and nature, and the relationship between religion and agriculture, in this region nourished by the great Lancang-Mekong River.

Editor: Liu Fang | Source: CCTV.com