Which autumn festival of Taiwan’s Amis people is also known as Ilisin?

The Amis people’s autumn celebration is known as the Harvest Festival, also called Ilisin.

The Amis are an Indigenous Austronesian people of Taiwan, concentrated mainly along the island’s eastern coast and in the East Rift Valley. Ilisin is an important communal observance involving songs, dances, feasting, age-grade groups, and ceremonies connected with social organization.

Although often translated into English as the Harvest Festival, Ilisin is not only a celebration of crops. It also renews relationships between generations, honors community traditions, and provides a setting for teaching cultural knowledge. Different Amis communities may hold their events at different times and with varying local customs.

The festival is sometimes confused with Taiwan’s Han Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival because both occur in the autumn and involve communal gatherings. They are separate traditions belonging to different cultural histories.