The Taitung Rice Harvest Festival, which is also known as the Taitung Hakka Festival, is the annual celebration of the Hakka ethnic group in eastern Taiwan and is an event in which farmers worship the gods, thanking them for a good harvest and praying for fair weather that will bring another bountiful harvest in the next year. In recent years, the Taitung County Government has spared no effort to promote Hakka culture, making people in Taiwan aware that Taitung has another national heritage other than indigenous culture.


(Photo credit: 臺東好米收冬祭)

The focus of the festival is promoting the concept of loving one’s hometown and eating good rice. Various activities are launched to promote Taitung’s industries and to create a different type of celebration from the large ceremonies seen in Hakka communities in western Taiwan.

On the day of the celebration, there are ceremonies such as the Bagongfu ceremony (伯公福, to honor the Lord of the Earth deity), concerts to celebrate the harvest, activities to experience harvesting the golden rice stalks, and outdoor Hakka language lessons and lectures. Bagongfu is an indispensable ritual in the life of Hakka people. After the autumn harvest, all the residents in the village are invited to gather to pray and give thanks to the deity Lord of the Earth (Bagong). This is also aimed at receiving "A Full Year of Blessings (滿年福)" from the deity. After the ritual, Hakka rice dishes are served to entertain the worshippers, which is considered the "Peace Banquet (平安宴)",  commonly known as "Eating (Enjoying) Blessing (食福)" or "Eating Bagong’s Blessings (食伯公福).”

In Taitung, around the end of each year, there will always be a golden field of rice stalks in the Hakka townships such as Beinan (卑南), Luye (鹿野), Guanshan (關山), and Chishang (池上) along the Provincial Highway 9. The air is full of strong fragrance of rice. This is the moment of joyful harvest for the people of Hakka villages. Nowadays, the swaying of the rice stalks in the vast golden fields is a unique and poetic image of the region that has become a totem representative of Taitung Hakka culture.


(Photo credit: 臺東好米收冬祭)

Due to the special geographical environment and good water quality in Taitung, the rice cultivated in this pure land is considered the crown of the whole Taiwan and is internationally renowned. A majority of the Hakka people who migrated to eastern Taiwan are farmers, so the practice of thanking the gods for a good harvest during harvest time is an important tradition and folk belief for locals. It contains rich cultural heritage and epitomizes the Hakka people’s strong affection for the land.

In order to enable the deep culture of the Hakka people to help drive industrial and economic growth, the community has used the local culture to create a Hakka harvest festival, which has been organized by the Taitung County Government under the guidance of the Hakka Affairs Council since 2010. Each year, the festival has successfully attracted a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to participate.