Taïwanese rituals

Night Market

In Taiwan, Night Markets are real institutions.

They are present in all cities large enough to be profitable. In Taipei alone, there are sixteen. In these Night Markets, we can find all the products that constitute the Taiwanese popular culture: first street food like stinky tofu, obviously different types of dumplings then other more surprising dishes such as dried mushrooms or snake soups.

But their importance comes from their place in Taiwanese society. This street food is cheap and very varied, the population is used to rarely cooked but rather eaten in these night markets and other street restaurants that can be found everywhere.

Night markets are a must for tourists wishing to soak up the Taiwanese culture. Some of them are also famous for attracting thousands of tourists every day like the Shilin Night Market, located north of the capital.

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a significant Chinese festival which is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

For this national event, the Taiwanese people honor the memory of a politician / patriotic poem - Qu Yuan of the war, of ancient China. Qu Yuan was the most respected minister in his county, because of his intransigence, enemies tried to belittle him. Later, the Chu dynasty he belonged to was destroyed by the Qin Dynasty. Qu Yuan was overwhelmed by the pain of his county and ended up committing suicide by jumping into the Mi Ro River on May 5 of the lunar year. In order not to let fishs eat Qu Yuan's body, people threw rice covered with leaves as food and took the boat to look for Qu Yuan's body.

Every year, the Dragon Boat Festival welcome thousands of spectators and a total of 218 teams from across Taiwan and abroad. For example, we saw a team from New Zealand. They were doing a Haka to encourage them before the race. Roughly 6,000 athletes will compete for an accumulative prize pool worth NT$2.8 million. Each boat has a drummer who beats in time with the rowers and sometimes another member whose sole purpose is to recover a flag attached to a buoy. Several teams face each other. The first team to reach the flag or cross the line is the winner.

For a better understanding, I leave below a video of one of the many races: