How does Taiwan mark Harvest and Gratitude?
農民節
- Local date
- February 4, 2027
- When is it?
- Set on the day of Start of Spring (Lichun) (per the Act Governing the Observance of Anniversary Days and Holidays; the date of Lichun follows the calendar data table of the Central Weather Administration)
Taiwan's Farmers' Day is not in autumn but at the beginning of spring — the Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays says plainly: "Farmers' Day: fixed on the day of Lichun." That is the reverse of the harvest days elsewhere: Thanksgiving, the farmers' harvest festival, Labour Thanksgiving all sit after the crop is in, while this one sits before the work starts. What it marks is not what has been gathered but the fact of going back to the field. The date is set by astronomy rather than by a fixed month and day, so whether it lands on 3, 4 or 5 February is something to look up each year in the Central Weather Administration's calendar tables. It is not a day off.
What is this topic?
Whether the harvest becomes a holiday, and who gets to define it, is answered five different ways: the United States built a federal holiday around the family table; India's Pongal is timed by the Tamil calendar and the sun's entry into Capricorn, and the pot of rice is the rite itself; Brazil ties it to three saints' days in June; mainland China created a farmers' festival by State Council approval in 2018; and Japan rewrote a prewar imperial harvest rite into a national day for thanking labour.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.