• Chinese New Year (also called Lunar New Year) is the longest and most important festival in Taiwan. Preparations begin well in advance as people purchase new clothing, snacks, candy, and colourful decorations with auspicious meanings.

After a family reunion and banquet, the new year is ushered in with the thunderous roar of exploding firecrackers and screaming rockets. Customs for the new year include enjoying sumptuous family feasts, offering food to the gods, and giving friends and relatives red envelopes containing "lucky money."

• 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 lunar new year. Over time, their torch-lit search for these spirits evolved into the Lantern Festival, now celebrated in temples and parks with colourful lanterns. Traditionally, Chinese parents prepared lanterns for their children to carry on the first school day of the new year to symbolize the hope that the children would have bright futures.

The Taipei Lantern Festival, held at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, features thousands of elaborate lanterns, lion and dragon dances, folk art demonstrations, acrobatic performances, and ceremonial temple processions. The festival has a different theme each year, and combines tradition with technology, art, sound, and light. This grand, three-day celebration of Chinese culture attracts millions of revelers every year, making it the largest celebration on the island.

• Tomb Sweeping Day is a time for families to visit the resting places of their ancestors, pay their respects, clean the graves, place fresh flowers, and perhaps plant a few new bushes or trees. Offerings of "ghost money" are dutifully burned in the belief that the smoke will carry the essence of the money to their ancestors in the spirit world.

• 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 hundreds of Matsu temples around Taiwan. The largest celebration is at Peikang's Chaotien Temple.

• The legend behind the colourful Dragon Boat Festival concerns a famous Chinese poet named Chu Yuan, who lived during the Warring States period (403-221 BC). A loyal court official, he was discredited by rivals and lost the trust of his king. The despondent poet drowned himself on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in the year 277 BC. The common people in the area respected the exiled official, so they jumped into their boats and rushed out to save him. The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates this unsuccessful rescue attempt.

• 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 feasts are set out, paper "ghost money" is burned for their use, and Taiwanese operas are performed. The climax of Ghost Month is the Chung Yuan Festival on the 15th of the month, when great sacrificial feasts are set out in temples and priests chant for the dead.

To insure that the ghosts don't get lost on their way to these feasts, lanterns are attached to tall bamboo poles in temple courtyards to act as beacons. Lanterns are also floated on lakes and streams because of a Chinese legend that the spirits of people who have drowned will seek substitute victims. Ghost month is most actively celebrated in Keelung, with an annual parade through the streets and elaborate feasts for the spirits at Tsu Pu Tan temple, in Chung Cheng Park.

Toucheng was a base for the development of the Ilan area. Each year, on the seventh day of the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, and again at the end of the month, the area features Taiwan's largest "ghost month" festivals. On the last day of the festival, they hold an event called Qianggu. Two tents are constructed, one 39 Taiwanese metres tall and the other 18 Taiwanese metres tall. Whoever can climb up to the top and claims the flag and the gold plaque wins good luck on the seas for the next year.

• The mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the day of the harvest moon, the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. This is one of the three major annual Chinese festivals. It is a public holiday, marked by family reunions, moon gazing, and eating moon cakes (round pastries stuffed with red bean paste and an egg yolk), or fruits and preserves.
• Visitors in Taipei can join hundreds of other moon-gazers at the Chiang Kai-shek or Sun Yat-sen memorials, as well as at the city's largest parks such as Yangmingshan, Youth Park, and Taipei Park

• Goddess of Mercy Birthday: Among the many deities who make up the Chinese pantheon, one stands out as the embodiment of the maternal virtues of loving kindness and compassion: the goddess Kuan Yin. She is worshiped by seafarers, farmers, travellers, merchants, and women seeking offspring.  

According to legend, Kuan Yin lived around 300 BC. As she grew up she exhibited great compassion for all living things, and because of her goodness during life, after her death great love converted hell into paradise. Not overly thrilled with the change, the King of Hell immediately sent her back to life, transported on a lotus blossom. Back on earth, Kuan Yin's divine powers and all-embracing love and compassion led people to worship her as the Goddess of Mercy.

Images usually portray Kuan Yin seated on a lotus, holding a vase. The vase symbolizes harmony, and Kuan Yin hands are said to contain the Dew of Compassion. The lotus symbolizes purity because it grows out of the mud but is not soiled by it.

Sacrifices to Kuan Yin consist of only fruit and vegetables, as it would be blasphemy to offer her meat or wine. Her birthday is celebrated without the continual explosion of firecrackers that accompanies the birthdays of other deities. This is due to the fact that Kuan Yin is so pure that it is unneccessary to ward off evil spirits, as none would dare to approach her. Her birthday is marked by chanting ceremonies to soothe the souls of the dead and by the release of wild animals (birds, turtles, and so on). Fishermen also hold celebrations at Kuan Yin temples near seaports.

• Festival of the God of Medicine: One of the greatest processions in Taiwan's calendar of traditional festivals is celebrated each year to honor the 10th century healer, Wu Pen, who was eventually declared a god. The festival is held at Hsuehchia, on the banks of the General Chiang Chun River in Tainan county.

The mortal healer who was to become one of the most revered gods in the Chinese pantheon was born in AD 980. He achieved early recognition and many legends are told about his life. One concerns the Taoist Queen of the West, who brought the 17-year-old Wu Pen to her Jasper Pond where she taught him how to defeat all manner of spirits and demons. He returned with a rare and precious book on medicine unknown to his contemporaries, and he used his new powers to cure both man and beast.

In another legendary episode, he came upon the bones of a young man who had recently fallen victim to a tiger. Wu Pen laid out the bones and anointed them with a special balm, which restored the man to whole form and health.

Wu's popularity as a god is greatest in Tungan county, Fukien province, where he lived. When the people of Tungan began emigrating to Taiwan, they naturally brought their gods, and Taiwan now has 160 temples dedicated to the God of Medicine, most of them in the southern half of the island.

The Tzu Chi Temple in Hsuehchia, which sponsors the annual festival, dates from the first day of Taiwan's conquest in 1661 by Koxinga, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) loyalist who expelled the Dutch colonists from Taiwan and sought to use the island as a base in his struggle to overthrow the new Ching dynasty (1644-1911)and restore the Ming.

The great procession that honors the God of Medicine stretches over 3 kilometres (1.8 miles and includes parade floats covered with fresh flowers and legendary figures, statues of the Medicine God atop elaborate sedan chairs borne by believers, and troupes of acrobats. This parade is perhaps the largest gathering of acrobats in Taiwan.

The procession begins at dawn, led by a group known as the 'centipedes'. All along the route, worshippers prostrate themselves on the ground and allow the centipedes to trample them in the belief this will drive out evil spirits. The procession halts at the Tzu Chi Temple for extended rites and then sets forth again, retracing the steps of Koxinga and his conquerors from the temple they founded, to their landing place on the riverbank, where more ceremonies are held.

The Medicine God's birthday is also celebrated at Taipei's Pao An Temple.

• Lukang Folk Arts Festival: Hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the island cram the tiny town of Lu-kang for its annual Folk Arts Festival. The festival provides what is probably the most intense and comprehensive celebration of living Chinese arts, including lantern making, top spinning, candy and dough sculpture, paper cutting and folding, oil paper umbrellas, kite flying, macrame, wood carving, and puppet shows. There are also dragon boat races, tug-of-war contests, dragon and lion dances, stilt walkers, drum dances, Chinese music and opera performances, parades of temple gods, and other floats featuring various facets of traditional Chinese life.

The four-day Lukang Folk Arts Festival begins three days before the Dragon Boat Festival.

• The Birthday of Hsiahai City God: The City God Temple, at 61 Tihua St, Sec. 1, is not large, but it has retained its original appearance for more than 100 years. The central deity among the temple's numerous images is the City God who presides over and protects the people of his city; he maintains accounts of the good and evil done by mortals, and keeps track of the movements of souls and demons in the underworld. This capacity inclines believers toward good thoughts, and fear of punishment keeps them from doing evil. The City God's birthday, on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month, is the most boisterous temple celebration in Taipei.

• Chinese Valentine's Day: The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is celebrated as Chinese Valentine's Day. An ancient Chinese legend tells of the cowherd and the weaving maid, who incurred the wrath of the gods and were banished to widely distant stars. Each year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, sympathetic magpies form a bridge between the stars, which allows the couple to meet again. The day is celebrated by the exchange of cards, love letters, or flowers.

• Birthday of Confucius: The birthday of Confucius is celebrated with a dawn ceremony (dating back nearly 3,000 years) at Confucian Temples around the island. The fascinating ceremony includes a ritual dance, costumes, music, and other rites. 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, September 28, is celebrated as Teacher's Day.

• Double Ten Day: In 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen inspired an uprising in Wuhan that spread throughout the country, toppled the Ching (Manchu) dynasty, and established the Republic of China, Asia's first republican form of government. The uprising began on Oct.10, also known as Double Ten, which is observed annually as the Republic Of China's National Day. It is marked with grand parades, folk dances, acrobatics, lion and dragon dances, and displays of martial arts in the plaza in front of Taipei's Presidential Office Building. A huge fireworks show over the Tamsui River ends the day.

• Birthday of Chingshan Wang: Chingshan Wang is a god believed able to cure illnesses. He was 'imported' from mainland China's Fukien province by Ching dynasty fisherman, who built a temple for the god in Taipei's Wanhua district. At that time Wanhua was stricken by a deadly plague, and patients who worshiped at Chingshan Temple claimed miraculous cures. This ensured the temple's popularity.

The god's birthday falls on the 23rd day of the 10th lunar month, though Wanhua residents traditionally celebrate the event one day earlier. On that day thousands of worshipers flock to the temple to mark the birthday, and statues of gods from other Wanhua-area temples arrive to help Chingshan Wang inspect his domain. The celebration includes a big parade by Chingshan Wang and 30 other gods borne along in sedan chairs, along with traditional Taiwanese folk music and folk arts performers, followed by devotees costumed as helpers of the various gods.

Households in the area light lanterns, decorate their doorways with red drapes, and set out tables laden with sacrificial offerings. As the parade passes, residents set off firecrackers to welcome the gods, and lavish feasts are held that night. The Chingshan Wan Temple is at 218 Kuei Yang St, Sec. 2, Taipei.

• Burning of the Wang Yeh Boats: A bizarre ceremony is held once every three years in Taiwan, when worshipers place food, images of deities, and other offerings on a huge, lavishly decorated boat resting atop a small mountain of paper "ghost money." At the auspicious hour, they set it on fire. The ceremony has its roots in ancient Chinese history, and is done to appease the gods of pestilence (Wang Yeh). One of the biggest ceremonies is held in Tungkang, Pingtung county, in southern Taiwan. The ceremony is held every three years (next in 2000, then 2003 and 2006).

• Colourful Aboriginal Festivals: One of Taiwan's most interesting attractions for tourists is the island's aborigine culture. The island has nine tribes: Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiat, Tsou, and Yami. Generally speaking, the aboriginal tribes still retain a lot of their primitive culture. Vestiges of this culture can be seen every day in commercial tourist areas, such as Wulai near Taipei, the Formosan Aborigine Cultural Village near Sun Moon Lake, and the Taiwan Aborigine Cultural Park in Pingtung county.