Ghost Month in Taiwan what can be checked, and what cannot
Plenty is said about the seventh lunar month. The claims are not all the same kind of thing. Some are written into statute, some are public services you can use, some are custom. This page sorts them into three layers and labels the basis for each — without judging the customs, only stating which claims have a citable source.
Layer one · Law: there is a statute to cite
- The Ghost Festival is named in law, but is not a holiday Article 5 of the Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays lists “Zhongyuan Festival: the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month” — it really is in the statute. But Article 6(3) states that festivals outside paragraph 1 are not holidays, and Zhongyuan is not in paragraph 1. Being named in law and being a day off are two different things.
- Whether a festival payment counts as wages turns on substance Article 10 of the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act is an exclusion list; item 3 names Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn payments, so those three do not feed into average wage and do not affect severance or pension. But the list names only those three. The test is recurrence, not the label: a fixed annual payment to everyone is a different thing from a one-off gift box.
- Does preparing the offering at your employer's request count as working time? The test is whether you are under the employer's direction and supervision — that is how it is decided in practice, not a definition written into the statute, so it turns on the facts. If it does count, hours beyond normal working time (Labor Standards Act Art. 30: 8 hours a day, 40 a week) attract overtime pay under Art. 24. And attendance records must be kept for five years (Art. 30(5)) — that is what you would rely on afterwards.
Layer two · Public services: real, and free
The least known layer, and the one with an actual government office behind it.
- Centralised paper-money burning City and county environmental bureaus collect and burn joss paper during the period. Incinerators run at 800–900°C with pollution controls, which is a very different emissions profile from open burning. Most areas take bookings, or set up collection points at convenience stores and temples.
- Donate instead of burning The money you would have spent on joss paper goes to a social welfare organisation; in some areas this can be done at convenience-store kiosks. Example: New Taipei City's Good Day platform.
- Rice instead of paper Some temples accept rice in place of joss paper and donate it afterwards.
Finding yours: search for your city or county plus “紙錢集中燒”, or call the local environmental bureau. This page deliberately does not list all 22 local links — those URLs change every year, and a stale list misleads more than no list. For the policy level, see the Ministry of Environment.
Layer three · Custom: no official basis
These are widely repeated. They have no statutory or agency basis, and the traditions disagree with each other — this page only notes that they are customs, without judging whether to follow them. That is a personal matter.
- Common advice Do not move house, break ground, swim, buy a car, hold a wedding, hang laundry at night, tap someone on the shoulder, or call a name out loud.
- Why the versions differ They come from local tradition and from individual temples, not from one source. Even the almanacs themselves disagree — one book marking a day auspicious while another marks it inauspicious is entirely normal.
- Only the dates can be verified The Gregorian dates for the month's start, the festival on day 15, and the closing day are calendrical and checkable. What you should do on those days is not.
To look up any date: lunar calendar converter. That page's data comes from the Central Weather Administration and likewise carries no auspicious/inauspicious markings, for the same reason.
Where this page stands (verified 2026-08-13)
① This is not “we avoid folk custom” — it is “we tell you which sentences can be checked”. Custom is real culture and this page does not set out to deny it. But every sentence on this site has to be traceable to a source, so claims with a statute, claims with an administering agency, and claims with neither are labelled separately for you to judge. ② Dates are computed from Central Weather Administration data, covering 2022–2050. Outside that range the tool reports that it does not know rather than extrapolating. ③ Service details change annually. Collection times, drop-off points and participating stores are set locally, so this page describes the service types and how to find them rather than listing links that will go stale. ④ Statute links all point to the national law database, and the build checks before deploying that each link resolves and that none points to a repealed act.
Common questions
Is the Ghost Festival a public holiday?
No. It is named in Article 5 of the Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays, but Article 6(3) provides that festivals outside paragraph 1 are not holidays — and it is not in paragraph 1.
The folk festivals that do get a day off are: Lunar New Year's Eve and New Year, Children's Day, Qingming, Labour Day, Dragon Boat, Teachers' Day, Mid-Autumn, and indigenous ceremonial days. This year's full list.
Does a Ghost Month gift payment affect my severance?
It turns on whether it is recurrent, not on what it is called. Severance uses average wage, which counts only wages. Article 10 of the Enforcement Rules excludes Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn payments — but that list names only those three.
So the test returns to substance: a fixed annual payment to everyone differs from a one-off gift box. What counts towards average wage covers this in full. For a dispute, contact your local labour bureau or call 1955.
Is centralised burning actually better for the air?
Incinerators burn at 800–900°C with pollution control equipment handling what is captured; open burning runs far cooler and combusts incompletely. That is the reason local environmental bureaus promote collection.
The service is run locally, and times, points and booking rules change each year. Search your city or county plus “紙錢集中燒”, or call the environmental bureau directly.
Is it true you must not move house or break ground in Ghost Month?
That is custom, not regulation. No law or agency restricts these activities in the seventh lunar month, and there is no official basis. This page does not judge whether to observe them — that is cultural and personal.
One thing can be said clearly though: the almanacs themselves disagree. One book marking a day auspicious while another marks it inauspicious is normal, because deciding which influence prevails requires judgment, and the traditions judge differently. So “the almanac says…” invites the question: which almanac?
How are the Gregorian dates worked out?
All three are fixed to lunar dates: the month opens on day 1, the festival falls on day 15, and the month closes on its last day — which moves, because lunar months run 29 or 30 days. The Gregorian dates differ each year, and are computed at the top of this page.
For any other date, use the lunar calendar converter — Central Weather Administration data, covering 2022–2050, reporting anything outside that as unknown rather than extrapolating.
Disclaimer
This is not legal advice. This page organises publicly available information. Reading or using it creates no advisory, retainer, or contractual relationship. Individual outcomes depend on the specific facts and on how the authorities read them — the Ministry of Labor, the Bureau of Labor Insurance, and your local labour bureau are the only binding sources. Decisions made from this page, and their consequences, are your own.