• Date: Seventh lunar month (roughly August)

Ghost Month is not a single festival but a thirty-day period during which, according to Taoist and folk belief, the gates of the underworld open and spirits of the deceased roam the living world. It is observed with a mixture of propitiation and caution: offerings of food and incense are placed on roadside altars for wandering spirits, ghost money is burned, and certain activities — swimming, moving house, major surgery, starting businesses, or getting married — are traditionally avoided.

The centrepiece is the Ghost Festival proper（中元普渡） on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month — the full moon, when the gates are fully open and spirits are most active. Communities hold elaborate ceremonies with enormous feasts offered to both ancestral spirits and unknown wandering ghosts. Keelung hosts what is widely considered the most spectacular Ghost Festival celebration in Taiwan, lasting the entire month and climaxing with a procession and the floating of lanterns on the sea to guide spirits back to the underworld.

For travellers, Ghost Month is a fascinating window into the living folk religion of Taiwan. The offerings you see on the street — plates of food, cups of tea, cigarettes and whisky, stacks of paper money — are genuine acts of spiritual maintenance, not performances. It is also a practical consideration: if you are planning extreme sports or water activities, be aware that some Taiwanese operators may be reluctant to take bookings during this period.