Keelung Ghost Festival 2026

Some sources online write it as the "Ghost Island Culture Festival," or even place it in April — all wrong. Its formal name is the Keelung Ghost Festival (Jilong Zhongyuan Ji), held in Keelung every seventh lunar month (Ghost Month); in 2026 it falls roughly from mid-August to early September. The most important night is the "releasing of the water lanterns" on the fourteenth of the seventh lunar month, around late August in 2026 — confirm the exact date with the official announcement.

In the Xianfeng era of the Qing (1851–1853), Keelung's Zhangzhou and Quanzhou settlers feuded without end, with heavy casualties. Later the elders of both sides came forward to make peace, buried the bones of the dead together and called them the "Elder Lords," and set down an agreement: no longer to settle rank with fists, but to have each "surname" clan take turns hosting the Ghost Festival, replacing broken heads with a contest of performance troupes. This rotation system has carried on since its first staging in 1855. So the grand festival before you is, at its root, a peace that stopped a bleeding — it turned hatred into a feast hosted in turn each year.

On the evening of the fourteenth of the seventh lunar month, floats carry each surname's water lanterns in a parade through the city, finally driving to the shore at Wanghai Lane in Badouzi to release them. Releasing the water lanterns is not for show — legend holds that in the seventh month the lonely spirits in the water cannot find their way, so people on shore light lanterns to guide them ashore to receive the universal salvation. Hundreds of lanterns drift out, the harbour's surface turning from black to gold; I kept watching the lanterns blink in the distance until they could no longer be seen, and only then turned away. In that moment what you think of is not the spectacle, but whose way home those lanterns are lighting.

In the days before the water lanterns are released, the surname clans set up main altars in central Keelung, some six or seven tiers high, every offering and paper effigy in its meaningful place, fine as so many works of installation art. Walking the city by day you pass them one after another, each a different style, though few people stop to look — this is, in my private opinion, the most underrated sight.

In 2008 the Keelung Ghost Festival was designated as Taiwan's first "Important Folk Custom" intangible cultural heritage. In other words, it is not a small local rite, but a folk custom certified by the nation and meant to be well preserved — what you go to see is something with the depth of history.

If I could pick only one night, I would choose the parade and release of the "water lanterns" on the fourteenth of the seventh lunar month — the most representative and most moving night of the whole festival, watching water lantern after water lantern be lit and pushed into the sea after nightfall by the shore at Wanghai Lane in Badouzi. To go deeper: the universal salvation on the fifteenth lets you see the main altars in full; the opening of the niche gate at the start of the month is the most ceremonial but also the most solemn. By day you can first go into the city to see each surname's main altar (like strolling through one open-air folk-custom exhibition after another), then in the evening secure a good spot by the harbour and wait for the water lanterns. The exact dates and parade route are announced each year by the surname family whose turn it is to host, so check the official sources before you set out.

Taking the train from Taipei to Keelung is quick, and a same-day round trip works fine. This is a solemn festival; when watching the water lanterns, please stay quiet and respectful, with no horsing around or loud noise. There are some local taboos during Ghost Month (no playing in the water, not calling out other people's names at random at night, and so on) — just follow the local customs.

The Keelung Ghost Festival is in fact a ritual sequence spanning the entire seventh lunar month, not a single night's event. On the first of the month the "opening of the niche gate" welcomes the Elder Lords (inviting the "good brothers" out); on the twelfth the main altars light up and shine with colour; on the fourteenth the parade releases the water lanterns; on the fifteenth comes the universal salvation; and at month's end the "closing of the niche gate" respectfully sees them off. If you can pick only one night, the night of the water lanterns (the fourteenth) is the most worthwhile; but knowing that it is "the rhythm of a month" will change the way you see all of this.

The day before the water lanterns were released, I stopped before one surname's main altar in the city. A middle-aged man quietly set down an offering, stood a moment, did not bow long, and left. That quiet was not quite like worshipping a god, more like saying a few low words to someone who was not there. In that moment I suddenly understood — Ghost Month in Keelung is not only spectacle and performance troupes; it is also a whole month in which many people gently hold in their hearts the ones they miss.

You can't carry away those water lanterns, but you will remember this: a city that once fought one another to death and injury later chose to replace hatred with "taking turns to host the festival well" — and has done so for a hundred and seventy years. Once you grasp this layer, that stretch of gold on the sea is no longer merely beautiful.