By Divya Narang 

The Chinese, like many other ancient cultures, follow the lunar calendar.  A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the moon phase. The current year in the Chinese calendar is the Year of the Earth Rat (Wu4 Zi). It lasts from 7-Feb-2008 to 25-Jan-2009.

The fifteenth night of the seventh month of the lunar calendar marks the start of a traditional Chinese festival and holiday called the Ghost Festival (Zhong1 Yuan2 Jie2 中元節) and the seventh month is generally regarded as the Ghost Month.  It is believed that during the seventh lunar month ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the "lower realm".

This year Taiwan celebrates the Ghost Festival on the 15^th of August, and for the remainder of the 7th lunar month.

The following commemorative dates and festivals are celebrated in Taiwan and were compiled from various sources on the worldwide web. 

Founding Day:  Jan 1, 2008

Chinese New Year:   (1st day of the first lunar month) Feb 7, 2008

Lantern Festival:  (the 15th day of the first lunar month) Feb 21, 2008

228 Memorial Day:  Feb 28, 2008 

Int'l Women's Day:  Mar 8, 2008

Youth Day:  Mar 29, 2008

Tomb Sweeping (Ching Ming) Festival: Apr 4, 2008

Children's Day:  May 4, 2008

Mothers Day:  May 11, 2008

Dragon Boat Festival:  (5th day of the fifth lunar month) Jun 8, 2008

Father's Day:  (8th day of the 8th month on the Gregorian calendar) Aug 8, 2008

Ghost Festival:  (15th day of the seventh lunar month) Aug 15, 2008

Armed Forces Day:  Sep 3, 2008

Mid-Autumn Festival:  (15th day of the eighth lunar month) Sep 14, 2008

Confucius' Birthday (Teachers' Day): Sep 28, 2008

Double Tenth Day:  Oct 10, 2008

Taiwan Retrocession Day:  Oct 25, 2008

Constitution Day:  Dec 25, 2008

The Western-Chinese Calendar Converter at www.mandarintools.com was useful in determining the dates for the lunar holidays.