Taipei festivals, month by month

Taiwan's biggest family holiday. Red lanterns line Dihua Street's year-end market, temples overflow with incense at midnight, and every shop spills peanut brittle, dried fruits and persimmons onto the sidewalk.

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 — 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.

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 — Guandu, Songshan Ciyou — hold their own processions with drums, flags and firecrackers.

Dajia Riverside Park hosts Taipei's dragon boat races on a three-day weekend. Meanwhile Dihua Street vendors pile up freshly-tied zongzi by the hundred. Don't forget to stand an egg at noon.

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.

Mooncakes, pomelos, and Taiwan's national obsession: roadside BBQ. Da'an Forest Park and the Dajia Riverside fill up with families grilling under the full moon. Bring wet wipes.

Tradition says climb a high place and drink chrysanthemum tea. Yangmingshan, Maokong and the Four Beasts trails all fit — 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 — 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.

The Chinese-language world's most prestigious film awards — three weeks of screenings at SPOT Taipei and Huashan, a red carpet at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, then a very glamorous party district-wide.

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.