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Chinese New Year
Date
Feb. 18, 2007
Feb. 7, 2008
Jan. 26, 2009
Feb. 14, 2010
Description
Chinese or Lunar New Year is the longest and most important festival in Taiwan. Customs include paying off debts, purchasing new clothes, thoroughly cleaning the house, enjoying sumptuous family feasts, offering sacrifices to the gods, and giving friends and relatives “red envelopes” containing “lucky money”. Firecrackers explode throughout the night on New Year’s Eve and sporadically on the following days. |
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Lantern Festival
Date
Mar. 4, 2007
Feb. 21, 2008
Feb. 9, 2009
Feb. 28, 2010
Description
The ancient Chinese believed tat celestial spirits could be seen flying about in the light of the first full moon of the new lunar year. Over time, their torch-lit search for spirits evolved into the Lantern Festival, now celebrated in temples and parks with colorful lanterns. Traditionally, the parents prepare lanterns for their children to carry on the first school day of the new year to symbolize their children would have bright futures. Nowadays kids carrying lanterns roam the streets on the evening of the festival. |
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Birthday of Matsu (The Goddess of the Sea)
Date
May 9, 2007
Apr. 28, 2008
Apr. 18, 2009
May 6, 2010
Description
According to legend, Matsu wasborn in D.D. 960 in Fujian Province, China. In a dream, young Matsu save her brothers from drowning after their ship sank, and at age 28 she ascended to heaven. Her miracles continued and Matsu earned the titles Goddess of the Sea and Empress of Heaven. Matsu, patron saint of fishermen, is one of the most venerated deities in the Chinese pantheon, and her birthday is celebrated with elaborate rites in Taiwan ‘s hundreds of Matsu Temples. |
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Dragon Boat Festival
Date
Jun. 19, 2007
Jun. 8, 2008
May 28, 2009
Jun. 16, 2010
Description
Boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival commemorate the attempt to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan, who drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Unable to save him, the people threw bamboo stuffed with cooked rice into the water so that the fish would eat the rice rather than the body of their hero. This evolved into the present custom of eating Tsungtzu, rice dumplings filled with ham or bean paste and rapped in bamboo leave, and the boats racing. |
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Ghost Month
Date
Aug. 13~Sep.10, 2007
Aug. 1~30, 2008
Aug. 20~Sep. 8, 2009
Jul. 10~Sep. 7, 2010
Description
On the first day of the seventh lunar month, known as Ghost Month, the gates of Hell open wide and the spirits are allowed a month of feasting and revelry in the world of the living. To ensure that the ghosts enjoy a pleasant vacation, lavish sacrifices are set out, sacrificial paper money is burned, and Taiwanese operas are performed. |
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Moon Festival
Date
Sep. 25, 2007
Sep. 14, 2008
Oct. 3, 2009
Sep. 22, 2010
Description
The Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 15th lunar month, observes the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon. The festival is a public holiday marked by family reunion, moon gazing, and the eating of moon cakes-round pastries ftuffed with red bean paste and an egg yolk, or fruits and preserves. |
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Birthday of Confucius
(Teacher’s Day)
Date
Sep. 28 yearly.
Description
The birthday of Confucius is celebrated with a dawn ceremony—parts of which date back nearly 3000 years—at Confucius Temples around the island. The ceremony includes a ritual dance, costumes, music, and other rites. |
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Aboriginal Festivals
Date
July and August
(The dates are set each year in early July by tribal officials)
Description
One of Taiwan’s most attractions for the tourist is the island’s aborigine culture. Anthropologists have divided the aborigines into nine tribes: Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiat, Tsou, and Yami. The aboriginal tribes still retain much of their primitive culture. The most impressive of the traditional aborigine activities are the tribal festivals, of which the harvest festivals are generally the most important. Rich in pageantry, the spirited festivals provide visitors with a wonderful glimpse of the aborigines’ colorful traditional clothes, their beautiful singing and dancing, and their vivid culture.
The largest regular aborigine gatherings are the annual Ami Harvest festivals, held in Hualien and Taitung counties. |
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