Close this Window PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS There are the official civic and religious holidays, when banks, offices and most shops are closed. Most holidays fall on a fixed date every year, but some traditional holidays change according to the Chinese lunar calendar from year to year. Founding Day: January 1-3 Chinese New Year: February* Youth Day: March 29 Tomb Sweeping Day: April 5 Dragon boat festival: June* Mid-autumn festival: September* Teachers Day: September 28 National Day: October 10 Taiwan retrocession Day: October 25 ChiangKai-shek's Birthday: October 31 Sun Yat-sen's Birthday: November 12 Constitution day: Dec.25 * According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar CHINESE NEW YEAR Chinese or Lunar New Year is the longest and most important of festivals in Taiwan. Customs include paying off debts, purchasing new clothes, cleaning the house thoroughly, 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 years eve and sporadically on the days following. The celebration of New years eve and the first three days of the New year may sometimes last up to one week. Movie theaters and major restaurants are essentially the only businesses open during the holiday. People return to work between the fifth and eight days of the New year but the festive atmosphere lasts through the Lantern festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Return to the Top LANTERN FESTIVAL The people of ancient China believed that 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, Chinese parents prepared lanterns for their children to carry on the first school day of the new year to symbolise the hope that the children would have bright futures. In modern Taiwan, small children carrying lanterns roam the streets on the evening of the festival. The Taipei Lantern Festival, held at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, features thousands of elaborate lanterns, dragons and lion dances, folk arts demonstrations, acrobatic performances, and ceremonial temple processions. This grand, three-day celebration of Chinese culture attracts millions of people every year. The weeklong Tourism Festival is held during the same week as the lantern festival, and is an excellent time to tour the island of Taiwan since many tourist hotels offer room discounts and major scenic spots have reduced admission. One of the world's most unique festivals coinciding with the Lantern festival, is the famous "rocket hives" fireworks show at Yenshui. For nearly 2000 years the town has fired off these "hives", each of which launches thousands of large, unaimed bottle rockets, to commemorate a successful fight against a plague. But beware - even with protective clothing, eye injuries and burns occur. Return to the Top BIRTHDAY OF THE GODDESS OF THE SEA According to the legend, Matsu was born in A.D.960. In a dream, young Matsu saved 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 fisherman, 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. Return to the Top DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL Boat races during the Dragon boat festival commemorate the attempt to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan, who drowned onthe fifth day of the fifth lunar year in 277 B.C. Unable to save him, 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 tzungtzu which are rice dumplings filled with ham or bean paste and warpped in bamboo leaves. Return to the Top GHOST MONTH On the first day of the seventh lunar year, 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. Return to the Top MOON FESTIVAL The moon or Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, observes the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon. One legend about the Moon Festival concerns expert architect Hou Yih, who built a palace of jade for the Goddess of the western heaven. In reward , she gave Hou Yih a pill with the elixir of immortality, warning him not to take it until he had fulfilled certain conditions. Hou Yih's ever-curious wife, Chang O, found the pill and promptly swallowed it. As punishment, she was banished to the moon where, according to tradition, her beauty is at it's topmost radiance on the day of the Moon festival. The festival is a public holiday marked by family reunions, moon gazing and the eating of moon cakes which are round pastries stuffed with red bean paste, egg yolk and preserves. Return to the Top BITHDAY OF CONFUCIUS This is celebrated with a dawn ceremony-parts of which date back nearly 3000 years at Confucian temples around the Island. The ceremony includes a ritual dance, music, and other rites. The teachings of Confucius are not a religion. Rather, they are a guide to appropriate personal behaviour and good government. They also stress the virtues of self-discipline and generosity. Confucius held the radical view that all who possessed the depth and desire to learn, not just the aristocracy, deserved the opportunity for formal education. For this reason, his birthday, Sept. 28, is celebrated as Teachers day, and is a National holiday in Taiwan. Return to the Top DOUBLE TEN DAY The last major festival of the year is Taiwan's National day. Double ten day commemorates the anniversary of the October 10, 1911 Revolution that led to the overthrow of the corrupt Ching Dynasty and the founding of the republic of China. It is marked with grand parades in front of Taipei's prseidential office building with folk dances, acrobatics, dragon and lion dances and displays of martial arts. Return to the Top Close this Window
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