Taipei festivals, month by month
Every festival Taipei celebrates, when to find it, and exactly where in the city to experience it. Time your trip with the right moment โ the city feels different every one of them.
January
February
Enormous themed lantern installations light up Liberty Square and the surrounding blocks. Pair with sky lantern releases up in Pingxi for the full effect.
Cherry blossoms first, then a riot of azaleas along Zhuzihu. Pack a picnic โ the steaming sulphur vents at Xiaoyoukeng make a dramatic next stop.
Solemn day of remembrance for the 1947 uprising. The 228 Peace Park and the National Taiwan Museum inside it hold ceremonies; the surrounding government quarter is quiet and reflective.
April
Families gather to sweep ancestral graves and burn offerings. Taipei's Martyrs' Shrine holds a formal honour-guard ceremony. Expect long bank holiday weekends and packed highways.
Dalongdong Baoan Temple throws open its 250-year-old doors for folk opera, fire-lion dances, and a plague-god parade through the Dadaocheng streets. Taiwan's biggest temple festival inside Taipei proper.
The island-wide Matsu pilgrimage ends in central Taiwan, but Taipei's big Matsu temples โ Guandu, Songshan Ciyou โ hold their own processions with drums, flags and firecrackers.
May
August
Couples and (many) hopeful singles flock to Xiahai City God Temple to plead with Yue Lao, the old man who ties red threads of fate. Expect long queues and a faint smell of incense all the way down Dihua Street.
For a full lunar month, spirits are said to roam among the living. Offerings appear outside every shop, joss paper burns in braziers at every corner, and temples hold elaborate pudu rites for the hungry ghosts.
September
October
Tradition says climb a high place and drink chrysanthemum tea. Yangmingshan, Maokong and the Four Beasts trails all fit โ and the weather's finally cool enough to enjoy them.
Morning flag ceremony outside the Presidential Office, air force flyover, and fireworks in the evening at a rotating venue (check current year). Chiang Kai-shek Memorial fills up for the gala.
East Asia's largest pride โ 100,000+ marchers set off from the Presidential Office and wind through Xinyi. The after-party scatters across Red House, Ximending and the Xinyi clubs.
Xinbeitou rolls out mikoshi parades, illuminated bath houses and discount passes. The old Hot Spring Museum runs special exhibitions and the tiny open-air ryotenburo on Beitou Park fills every night.
November
December
Families eat tangyuan (glutinous rice balls in sweet soup) to mark the year getting warmer. Dihua Street's dry-goods vendors sell the dough balls by the kilo, and every temple bowls up a free portion for worshippers.
Asia's second-most-watched countdown. 360 seconds of pyrotechnics climb the tower while a free open-air concert plays outside Sun Yat-sen Memorial. MRT runs all night; plan your viewing spot two hours early.