Festivities, Holidays and Traditions in Taipei

Spring celebration

It is a shared celebration between the Republic of China and Taiwan. Based on the lunar calendar which gives a date to the Chinese New Year’s Eve, this celebration is basically a gathering of all families of the region to give some offerings and sacrifices to the Buddhist and Taoist Gods for their ancestors. The night before, furing the Spring celebration, it is a tradition to prepare some fireworks to chase away the bad spirits, and it is the moment when everyone welcomes the new year with food, hugs and traditional music and dances.

 

Cultural Festival in the Temple Bao'an

Between the months of March and June and during 5 days, in the Temple Bao’an they celebrate several rituals to thanks Gods. During those days the temple becomes a holy space where you’ll see dances, theater plays or ophera, parades or even birthday celebrations of Gods. This event is for free and a good way to know when it will exactly take place is to check the Taipei government website: http://english.gov.taipei/.

 

Lantern Celebration

The Lantern festival is one of the most attractive and popular celebrations in Taiwan. It is also known as the Yuan Hsiao and it takes place 2 weeks after the Chinese New’s Year Eve. On that day there is the first full moon of the year and that’s why the sky it’s flooded by the fireworks, while the streets are full of Taiwanese people walking with bright lanterns calling upon the protective Gods. Something surprising is how they organize these walking processions: they gather in groups and they walk all together at the same time (6 or 7 steps series) , and it looks like a centipede.

 

Confucious Birth

Confucious was a philosopher very important within the Chinese culture but also in general in Asia, because he emphasized the morals, the ethics of the social relationships, the justice and the sincerity. Every 28th of September they commemorate his birth, organizing dances, music performances and offerings in all the Confucious temples of Taiwan. Also, it is the official celebration of the Republic of China.

 

Dragon’s boat

The first day of Summer by the Taiwanese culture is a day of bad luck. To throw out the bad energies and spirits that unfortunate day there is a familiar and friends tradition. They gather and eat, drink wine and do rituals to purify themselves. It is also the day when all families turn on linterns and organize dragon’s boat races in the water.