Keelung Mid-Summer Ghost Festival

In the seventh lunar month the gates of the underworld are held to open, and Keelung marks it more elaborately than anywhere else in Taiwan: a month of rituals organised by fifteen clan associations that take the responsibility in strict rotation, one year each. The centrepiece is the water lantern parade, when illuminated paper houses are carried through the city and then floated burning out onto the harbour to guide drowned spirits ashore.

What you actually see

• The water lanterns - paper houses floated burning onto the harbour at night.
• The parade - the procession through the city before the launching.
• The clan rotation - fifteen associations taking the organising duty one year each.
• The opening and closing of the gate - the rituals that frame the whole month.

When to go

The seventh lunar month, usually falling in August; the water lantern night is the fourteenth day. The dates shift each year and are announced in advance. Nothing of it happens outside the month.

Honest expectations

This is a religious observance and not a show; behaviour at the rituals matters. The lantern night draws very large crowds and the harbour front is packed. Photography of rituals should be done with care.

Nearby

Heping Island is northeast, and Jiufen is east.