Taiwan festivals and events 2027: month-by-month calendar

How to read this calendar

The holiday dates come from the official 2027 calendar of the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA). It is the calendar for government offices; private employers follow labour law and may give different days off, and the calendar does not tell you that shops or sights close.

Several festivals follow the lunar calendar. The DGPA puts Lunar New Year's Day on 6 February 2027, so the Lantern Festival, 14 days later, falls on 20 February. Where an organiser has not yet published its 2027 programme, we give the expected date and say so.

January: New Year

New Year's Day, Friday 1 January, gives government offices a three-day break to Sunday 3 January.

February: Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival

The Lunar New Year break runs from Thursday 4 to Wednesday 10 February, with New Year's Eve on Friday 5 February and New Year's Day on Saturday 6 February. It is a time for family reunion dinners, rice cakes and New Year decorations. If you plan to travel by train that week, book early: Taiwan Railway normally opens reserved seats 28 days ahead.

The Lantern Festival falls on Saturday 20 February, and three celebrations gather around it:

• Taiwan Lantern Festival, the national lantern show, is planned in Miaoli County from 20 February to 7 March 2027, around Zhunan and Toufen sports parks. The Ministry of Transportation calls these dates provisional, and plans the main areas near high-speed rail and railway stations.
• Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi and Shifen, New Taipei City, holds organised sky-lantern releases around the Lantern Festival, so expect them around 20 February; the 2027 sessions had not been announced.
• Yanshui Beehive Fireworks in Yanshui, Tainan: a deity procession with firecrackers and bottle rockets that starts the day before the Lantern Festival and goes on into the next morning, so expect it around 19-20 February.

Late February and April: Peace Memorial Day and Qingming

Peace Memorial Day, Sunday 28 February, has a substitute day on Monday 1 March, making a break from 27 February to 1 March.

Children's Day (Sunday 4 April) and Qingming, the tomb-sweeping festival (Monday 5 April), with a substitute day on Tuesday 6 April, make a four-day break from 3 to 6 April.

April and May: the Mazu pilgrimage and Labour Day

The Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage sets out from Dajia Jenn Lann Temple in Taichung in the third lunar month, around Mazu's birthday, which usually means April or May. It is a large religious celebration that draws big crowds along its route; the 2027 dates had not been announced when we checked.

Labour Day, Saturday 1 May, has a substitute day on Friday 30 April, for a break from 30 April to 2 May.

June to September: Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn

The Dragon Boat Festival, Wednesday 9 June, brings dragon-boat races and zongzi rice dumplings.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, Wednesday 15 September, is for family moon-viewing with mooncakes and pomelos.

July and August have no public holidays.

October to December: National Day and the year-end weekends

National Day, Sunday 10 October, has a substitute day on Monday 11 October, for a break from 9 to 11 October. Taiwan Retrocession and Kinmen Guningtou Victory Day, Monday 25 October, makes another long weekend from 23 to 25 October.

Constitution Day, Saturday 25 December, has a substitute day on Friday 24 December, and Friday 31 December is the substitute for New Year's Day 2028, which falls on a Saturday.