Friday, October 9, is the day most offices and schools actually close for National Day. The holiday itself is Saturday, October 10, the date fixed in law for the Republic of China. Because Double Ten falls on a Saturday this year, the public-sector substitute day is Friday, which gives many people a three-day weekend through Sunday. Banks, government counters, and schools follow that calendar. Shops, night markets, and most restaurants do not. Treat Friday as a day off from the desk, not a day the city shuts.
Two fireworks are on the Saturday card, and they are not the same show. The national display is in Taitung, at the south bank of the Beinan River mouth, themed around Austronesian Taiwan. It is scheduled for 8 p.m. and runs about half an hour, the first time the national show has been on the east coast in nine years. Taipei 101 is running its own performance at 10 p.m. over the area between Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 and the Grand Hyatt: about fourteen minutes, with a drone segment of roughly 600 aircraft, low-smoke fireworks, and lighting on the tower. Outdoor viewing is free. The mall closes early, at 9:30 p.m., and the observatory stops selling tickets at 8:15 p.m., so the deck is not a last-minute plan.
In Taipei, Civic Plaza and the Xinyi rainbow crossing have been the reliable street-level views in recent years. Elephant Mountain sees the tower, not the drones. Xinyi roads will be controlled after the show; the metro is the exit. New Taipei is holding its National Day gala on Friday evening at Banqiao First Stadium, with a warm-up before 6 p.m. That one wants a free ticket in advance, not a walk-up.
The presidential ceremony on Saturday morning is ceremonial and hard to see unless you are already on the route near the Presidential Office. It is not the reason to rearrange a weekend. If you stay in Taipei, the useful sequence is ordinary Saturday daylight, then the 10 p.m. tower show. If you go east, leave on Friday and do not expect a same-day return after the river-mouth display. A short briefing on the holiday dates is on Public Holidays Taiwan.