国内英语新闻:To spree, or to save? Drought put sprinkling festival under fire

The drought, however, would never dry up ethnic Dai's passion for their most important traditional festival.

"Water sprinkling is an indispensable part of our new year celebrations," said 60-year-old Yannuo in Menghan township in the less-affected tropical prefecture. "We should not lose our tradition."

"Those who oppose the celebrations are neither Dai people, nor from an ethnic group that observes the tradition. I don't think they understand how important the festival is to us," said Wang Jinhan, a Dai girl in Manzha village.

The governmental decision has also gained understanding.

A local farmer looks at dying crop in the field in Shihuitang village of Shiping County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 24, 2010. The sustaining severe drought ravaged this region since last October and made no harvest of crops

There is no reason to deprive Dai people's rights to celebrate their most important festival as the Water Sprinkling Festival, which has had a history of about 1,000 years, is as important to them as the Spring Festival is to the Han people, said a netizen self-dubbed NMGV.

An online supporter self-named Liyimen96 called on the critics to respect the ethnic culture and traditions, saying the traditional spree should not be canceled only due to the drought.

Zheng Peng, a Dai folklore expert, suggest people splash water in a symbolic way. "And actually the traditional way was also a kind of symbolic sprinkling. In tradition, people just dip tree branches into water and sprinkle it onto others," he said.

"I think the celebration can help unite the ethnic minorities and serve as a way of praying for rain and encouraging people to combat the drought," said Zheng, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country top political advisory body.