So you want to experience culture huh?

It is all too common to hear 2 sides to every story, and Taiwan is a perfect example. There are those who fly in for a few days, stay in a hotel in a city, often Taipei, and only see city, pollution and big shopping malls. The other side is the people who come, learn and travel and end up living here (such as myself). Taiwan is more than just industrial parks, business districts and shipping ports. With high mountains containing huge old growth coniferous forests which snow, right down to tropical coral rock forests. The natural diversity is enormous, especially considering the small land mass of Taiwan. These natural things are discussed elsewhere so here let’s discuss some of the very many cultural aspects of Taiwan.

Chinese new years is boring. Well, it’s not often said like this by people, but it is true. The lunar new year is a very important holliday and is te longest holliday for non students in Taiwan (up to a full week), but I often tell visitors if they want to eb amazed by Taiwans cultural events, don’t bother on new years. This is the time of year when people go back to their families and visit. Typically many shops close down, at least for a couple days, and it is just not lively many places. Also gambling and drinking go on 24/7, especially outside the city, and basccially its just not a lively or fun time for a foreigner to travel around. Never mind the fact that te roads are beyond busy and a simple 1 hour drive onth highway can easily turn into an all day affair. Simply, uness you are Taiwanese and visiting family, skip this holiday next vacation.

Incredible times to see some real culture are usually related to temple ceremonies. If you want to see dragon dances, drums, horns, costumes, massive lit up floats, fireworks etc etc, visit during a god’s birthday. This is undeniably the most exciting time, in my opinion, for a foreign tourist to come as it is just so uniquely Taiwanese and packed with action.

It is actually very difficult to find out about temple ceremonies actually, at least in English. Knowing Mandarin and/or getting help from a Taiwanese person will be your best bet. Often temples have a board outside that has dates of when birthdays are and when other temples will be visiting them. There are celebrations everywhere, all the time. I mean if you drive around Taiwan, you are pretty much sure to see fireworks, but its not the same as being in the middle of a big old fashioned temple turn out! One of the bigger ones to check out is Matsu’s birthday. She is the “main” god (of the sea) and the temples hold really large celebrations all over the place for her birthday. Temples in Taiwan often have 1 temple per god per town. So there are 1000’s of Temples dedicated to Matsu (and the same for other gods). Her birthday sits in April using the calendar, but the date we use changes as they follow the lunar calendar. Search for her birth day date for the year you are coming.

Billions of fireworks cracking your ear drum about sums up being int eh main square of a ceremony. Each area is different, our town for example holds a 2 day long celebration that has thousands fo groups parading around te entire town (tey need to walk down *every* street) and lighting fireworks off at most houses and all the temples alogn the way. Typically ceremonies like this start at the Matsu temple, and finish there completing a loop. The fireworks at the end are often the biggest, so waiting around the finishing point (usually Matsu Temple) is a good idea.

Don’t get hurt watching the fireworks. They sometimes fill kilometers of road with thousands, maybe millions of fireworks, and many times more firecrackers. The sound is actually very harmful to your ears, the smoke can get thick, and sometimes they fly sideways and hurt people. People have died in these ceremonies, so care must be taken. I would not suggest small children go to them simply for the harm to their ears. If you can cover their ears and protect them, it may be ok. Stand back a little bit.

The experience of a full ceremony will be something you wont ever forget, and something no documentary has come close to representing in any true meaningful manner. I feel it’s not possible to convey the feeling of the experience with actually being there.

Lantern festival is also a wonderful time to come. Taiwan lantern festival is famous worldwide. There is often a main festival for all Taiwan, but most towns have their own as well. Any city should have their own display of varying sizes. Going to very large temples with lots of land (usually Buddhist temples) is a good idea as they tend to have larger displays.

Grave sweeping, or tomb sweeping, is a holiday that is not really suited to tourists. It is when families get together and clean the graves of their family. Not appropriate to go to these as it is very spiritual and rude to go take photos. I have attended with my wife’s family, and it is not so entertaining but interesting. Why it is mentioned here is due to it being a 3 day weekend (sometimes 4) so there tend to be festivals. Notably Spring Scream, a massive music festival in Kenting, south Taiwan. This is a very massive music festival held annually in spring.

We suggest these celebrations to visit (unless your Taiwanese)

God’s Birthdays, especially Matsu’s Birthday

Lantern Festival

New Year (Dec. 31) in big cities

We suggest perhaps not planning your trip around these celebrations

Grave/Tomb Sweeping

Double ten day (October 10)

Chinese New Year (It’s good but not lively and VERY busy on the roadways!)

Western holidays for the most part are not celebrated. The only one that is widespread is new year. Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc are often celebrated by churches and are catching on in schools with students cause they are fun. But none are recognized as national holidays, and generally only young people celebrate them and even then often just to play. More and more places are, however, decorating and cashing in on Halloween and Christmas. Bars and clubs will also have a night or few celebrating the event.

Non-Chinese cultural events also happen. There are lots of “minority” groups in Taiwan. So there are also numerous aboriginal events and events from foreign nationals (such as Canada day). There are too many to write, so its best to look for a certain even from your country/region and see if it is celebrated here in Taiwan. Often these things are more in big cities like Taipei or Taichung (Taijong).

There are numerous aboriginal cultures in Taiwan, which each have their own traditions. Unfortunately many have been converted by Christian missionaries previous to now, so it seems less and less are celebrated, but there are still numerous traditions live and well. Going to Taitung (Taidong) and Orchid Island have a few large celebrations. Aboriginal events are sometimes open to spectators such as parks, weddings, celebrations etc. These are often times less commonly encountered to the non-Chinese speaking crowd.

[ Enviro-Trekking | Taiwan ]

Last updated: 25/04/2011