109 Fun Facts About World Religions

Which apostle did Jesus call the rock on which he would build his church?

Peter denied knowing Jesus three times on the night of his arrest, yet he went on to lead the early church.

What is the name of the tower from which a mosque's call to prayer is traditionally given?

Minarets went to a national vote in 2009, when more than 57% of Swiss voters approved a ban on building new ones.

Which Hindu god is usually shown with the head of an elephant?

In one popular telling, Shiva beheaded the boy Ganesha for blocking his path, then replaced the head with an elephant's.

Which eight-night Jewish festival marks the Maccabees' rededication of the Temple?

Hanukkah lasts eight nights because, in the Talmud's telling, one day's supply of oil kept the Temple menorah burning for eight days.

In which region of the Indian subcontinent did Sikhism originate?

Punjab, where Sikhism began, was split between India and Pakistan in 1947, and Sikhs on the Pakistani side left for India.

Who was the first of the ten Sikh gurus?

Guru Nanak had two sons, but he chose a devoted follower, Lehna, renamed Angad, to succeed him as guru.

Which scripture do Sikhs revere as the final successor to their ten human leaders?

Guru Gobind Singh named the Guru Granth Sahib his successor, so the book is seated on a throne under a canopy, as a human guru would be.

Sikhs celebrate the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh during which festival?

Vaisakhi was already a harvest festival when Guru Gobind Singh chose its 1699 gathering to baptise the first members of the Khalsa.

In which Indian city does the Golden Temple stand?

Amritsar's Golden Temple was built with entrances on all four sides, a sign that people from every direction and background are welcome.

Who paid to cover the Golden Temple's sanctum in gold leaf?

Ranjit Singh's gold leaf, finished in 1830, covered a shrine that invading Afghan armies had wrecked in the 1700s and Sikhs had rebuilt.

Which principle of non-violence toward all living beings is central to Jainism?

Ahimsa steered many Jains away from farming, which unavoidably harms living beings, and into trade and banking instead.

Which Jain tirthankara was a contemporary of the Buddha?

Mahavira was a prince who left the royal palace at about 30 and spent twelve and a half years fasting and meditating before he began to teach.

Which Jain sub-tradition's name means "sky-clad"?

Digambara nuns wear clothes, so the sect holds that women cannot reach liberation without first being reborn as men.

Which foods do many strict Jains refuse to eat?

Root vegetables are avoided because digging them up is believed to harm countless tiny organisms as well as the plant.

In which present-day country was the Buddha born?

Nepal's Lumbini was forgotten for centuries and rediscovered in 1896, when a pillar recording Emperor Ashoka's visit was found there.

In which town did the Buddha attain enlightenment?

Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi Temple slipped from Buddhist control for centuries, until a campaign Anagarika Dharmapala began in 1891 partly won it back in 1949.

The site of the Buddha's enlightenment lies in which present-day Indian state?

Bihar was also home to Nalanda, a great Buddhist monastery and centre of learning said to have been sacked by Bakhtiyar Khalji's army around 1200.

The Buddha was born a prince with which personal name?

Siddhartha, in the traditional story, left his palace after seeing an old man, a sick man and a corpse, and set out to find an end to suffering.

What does the word "nirvana" literally mean?

Blowing out, as a flame goes out: in his Fire Sermon, the Buddha taught that all the senses are burning, and the thousand monks listening were liberated.

Buddhists take refuge in the "three jewels": the Buddha, the Dharma and what?

The Sangha began with five ascetics who had abandoned the Buddha when he gave up extreme austerities, then became his first monks after his first sermon.

Theravada is the dominant Buddhist tradition in which country?

Thailand's Theravada monks live on gifts: lay people supply their food and robes, and in return the monks offer teaching and blessings.

The 14th Dalai Lama fled Lhasa in 1959 and settled in exile in which Indian town?

Dharamshala became home to the Tibetan government-in-exile after Prime Minister Nehru let the Dalai Lama settle there, and thousands of Tibetans followed.

Hindus often call their tradition Sanatana Dharma, meaning what?

Eternal way: Sanatana Dharma is a native name, while 'Hindu' began as an outsiders' word, from Persian, for the people beyond the Indus River.

In Hindu thought, which of the four aims of life means liberation from rebirth?

Moksha was added later to three older aims, duty, wealth and pleasure, yet came to be regarded as the ultimate goal of human life.

The Bhagavad Gita is part of which longer Hindu text?

The Mahabharata's Gita is a battlefield dialogue in which Krishna persuades Prince Arjuna, reluctant to kill his own relatives, to do his duty.

Which Indonesian island has a largely Hindu population?

Bali stayed Hindu as Islam spread through Java, and when the Majapahit empire fell, many of its priests, artisans and nobles moved to Bali.

Diwali, the festival of lights, is especially associated with which Hindu goddess?

Lakshmi is welcomed on Diwali night with lamps, lit to help her find her way into people's homes.

Which of the Five Pillars of Islam is almsgiving?

Zakat, usually 2.5% of a Muslim's wealth each year, is believed to purify the giver's wealth as well as help the poor.

During which month do Muslims observe the fast known as sawm?

Ramadan follows the lunar Islamic calendar, so it moves through the seasons, and a summer fast from dawn to sunset lasts far longer than a winter one.

Which phrase opens all but one of the Quran's chapters?

Bismillah, 'in the name of God', opens every chapter but the ninth, and Muslims also say it over an animal at halal slaughter.

Which branch of Islam do most of the world's Muslims follow?

Sunni Muslims descend from the larger group that accepted Abu Bakr as caliph after Muhammad died, while Shia Muslims backed his cousin Ali.

After Mecca and Medina, in which city is the third-holiest site of the Muslim faith?

Jerusalem was Islam's first qibla: early Muslims faced it in prayer until the direction was changed to Mecca.

During the Hajj, pilgrims throw pebbles at walls representing whom?

Satan, in the story the ritual recalls, tried to tempt Abraham to disobey God, and Abraham drove him away.

What does the Arabic word "Kaaba" literally mean?

The Cube, the Kaaba, is wrapped in a cloth called the kiswah, which is replaced with a new one every year.

Which Muslim festival, held during the Hajj, recalls Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son?

Eid al-Adha is marked by sacrificing an animal and sharing the meat, traditionally in thirds, among family, friends and the poor.

What is the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for a boy of 13 called?

Bar mitzvah shifts responsibility: a traditional blessing has the father thank God for freeing him from answering for his son's deeds.

Which division of the Hebrew Bible comes between the Torah and the Ketuvim?

Nevi'im supplies the haftarah, a passage read aloud in synagogue after the Torah reading on each Sabbath.

Who compiled the Mishnah around 200 CE?

Judah ha-Nasi set the oral law down in writing, a step tradition links to fears that persecution would cause it to be forgotten.

Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, translates as what?

Day of Atonement: observant Jews spend it fasting from food and drink, and they avoid wearing leather shoes.

In Genesis, what was the name of the son Sarah bore to Abraham in their old age?

Isaac's name means 'he laughs', recalling how his parents laughed when told they would have a child so late in life.

Which city gave its name to the 313 imperial agreement to treat Christians benevolently?

Milan's edict also ordered that meeting places and property seized from Christians be returned to them.

In the East-West Schism of 1054, papal legates excommunicated the patriarch of which city?

Constantinople's patriarch, Michael Cerularius, excommunicated the legates in return, and the sentences were only lifted in 1965.

Who wrote the Ninety-five Theses against indulgences in 1517?

Martin Luther was declared an outlaw in 1521, and his protector, Frederick III, staged a kidnapping to hide him in Wartburg Castle.

According to Acts, in which city was the term "Christian" first used?

Antioch is where Barnabas and Saul taught the church for a whole year, and where the disciples were first called Christians.

Which 1929 agreement created the independent state of Vatican City?

The Lateran Treaty, signed with Mussolini's government, ended the Roman Question, which had left popes calling themselves prisoners in the Vatican since Italy took Rome in 1870.

What is the name for the spirits or deities venerated in Shinto?

Kami can be the spirits of people too: Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine honours nearly 2.5 million Japanese war dead as kami.

What is the traditional gate at the entrance to a Shinto shrine called?

Torii mark a shrine's sacred ground, and at Itsukushima the torii was built out in the sea, so at high tide it appears to float.

Which sun goddess is considered the chief deity of the Shinto pantheon?

Amaterasu, in the best-known myth, hid in a cave and plunged the world into darkness until the other gods lured her out with crowing birds and a mirror.

The Tao Te Ching is traditionally credited to which sage?

Laozi, legend says, wrote it when a guard at the western gate asked him to record his wisdom before he left China.

Which Taoist term describes the virtue of "effortless action"?

Wu wei is often pictured as water, which the Tao Te Ching calls the softest, weakest thing, yet the best at overcoming the hard and strong.

Which book collects the sayings of Confucius, traditionally compiled by his followers?

The Analects record his answer when asked for one word to live by: reciprocity, not doing to others what you would not want done to yourself.

Under which Chinese dynasty did Confucianism become the dominant official ideology?

Han Emperor Wu made Confucianism the state philosophy and founded a school to train officials in its classics, after the Qin had ruled by harsh Legalism.

Which all-wise creator god do Zoroastrians worship as supreme?

Ahura Mazda, Zoroastrians teach, is locked in a cosmic struggle against a destructive spirit, and humans are called to help good prevail.

Zoroastrians who migrated to the Indian subcontinent became the ancestors of which community?

They fled persecution after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia and were granted asylum in India.

The Baha'i Faith's Universal House of Justice sits in which city?

Haifa hosts the Baha'i World Centre because the Ottomans exiled the faith's founder, Baha'u'llah, to nearby Acre in 1868.

Rastafari developed during the 1930s in which country?

Jamaica's Rastas often regard Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist who campaigned for a return to Africa, as a prophet.

Rastas accord key importance to which Emperor of Ethiopia?

Haile Selassie, whom many Rastas regard as divine, never adhered to Rastafari himself.

Confucius lived during which period of Chinese history?

Spring and Autumn China was split among many squabbling states, as Zhou kings lost real power and the strongest lords made themselves overlords.

Zoroastrianism was first adopted by which Iranian empire?

The Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great was known for religious tolerance and let the Jews exiled in Babylon return home to rebuild their Temple.

What colour of smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney signals that cardinals have elected a new pope?

White smoke means a pope has been chosen, while black means the ballot failed. Chemicals are added to make the colour unmistakable, and since 2005 the basilica's bells ring as well.

Which word did the biologist Thomas Huxley coin for someone who holds that God's existence cannot be known?

Agnostic was Huxley's own label, coined around 1869 as a contrast to the Gnostics of early church history, who claimed to know so much. He is better remembered as "Darwin's Bulldog".

Which pulp science-fiction writer founded Scientology in the 1950s after publishing the book Dianetics?

L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics in 1950, and a Scientology church was founded in Los Angeles in 1954. He later returned to fiction with the ten-volume series Mission Earth.

Zoroastrians traditionally lay their dead on raised "towers of silence" to be eaten by which birds?

Vultures once stripped a body within minutes. Then a livestock drug killed over 97% of India's vultures, pushing communities there to try solar mirrors instead.

The whirling dervishes of Turkey's Mevlevi order follow which 13th-century Persian poet?

Rumi's followers founded the order in Konya, where he is buried. The spinning is part of a formal ceremony called the sema, performed as a way of remembering God.

Which Istanbul landmark, completed in 537, has been a church, a mosque, a museum and a mosque again?

Hagia Sophia had the largest interior space in the world when it was completed. It became a museum in 1935 under the Turkish republic and was redesignated a mosque in 2020.

Muslims gather at the mosque for Jumu'ah, the weekly congregational prayer, at midday on which day?

Friday is the Day of Assembly, which is what its Arabic name means. Many Muslim countries include it in the weekend, and others make it a half-day for schools.

Which word describes food that meets Jewish dietary law, which bars meat and dairy from the same meal?

Kosher means "fit" in Hebrew. Observant households keep separate sets of dishes for meat and milk, and wait up to six hours after meat before touching anything made with milk.

Which Christian festival falls on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox?

Easter can therefore land anywhere from 22 March to 25 April. The rule uses a fixed equinox of 21 March and a calculated moon, not the ones in the sky.

Brigham Young led Latter-day Saint pioneers west in 1847 to settle in which present-day US state?

Utah's Salt Lake Valley was still part of Mexico when the trek was planned. Young arrived on July 24, 1847, a date the state celebrates as Pioneer Day.

In which town, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, was Jesus born?

Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity stands over a grotto honoured as the birthplace, the oldest site in continuous use as a place of Christian worship.

In which river, according to the Gospels, was Jesus baptised by John the Baptist?

The Jordan's east bank holds Al-Maghtas, venerated as the place of the baptism since at least Byzantine times and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015.

In which river, worshipped as a goddess, do Hindu pilgrims bathe from the stepped ghats of Varanasi?

The Ganges is personified as the goddess Ganga. Bathers cup its water in their hands and let it fall back as homage to ancestors and gods, and float small lit oil lamps on the surface.

Which Hindu festival, heralded by bonfires the night before, has revellers hurling coloured powder?

Holi's bonfires recall the burning of Holika, a legend of good defeating evil. The festival also honours the love of Radha and Krishna.

Which English king broke with the pope and had himself declared Supreme Head of the Church of England?

Henry VIII made the break after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his 18-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which he wanted ended so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

In which Indian city did the Skopje-born nun Mother Teresa found the Missionaries of Charity?

Calcutta, now Kolkata, is where she taught at a convent school for nearly twenty years. The order began there in 1950 as a community of just 12 and kept its mother house in the city.

Which Jewish festival, with its Seder meal and unleavened bread, recalls the Exodus from Egypt?

Passover households clear out every trace of leavened food, called chametz, before the festival. At the Seder the Exodus story is read aloud from a ritual book, the Haggadah.

Which movement, founded by George Fox in 17th-century England, is formally the Religious Society of Friends?

Quakers are said to have got the nickname after Fox told a judge to tremble at the word of the Lord. Their traditional worship has no planned service, only silence until someone feels moved to speak.

In which country was Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, born to a family of Italian origin?

Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, was his birthplace and later his archdiocese. As a young man, long before he was ordained, he had worked as a bouncer and a janitor.

Krishna, the charioteer who counsels Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, is worshipped as an avatar of which Hindu god?

Vishnu, the Preserver of the Hindu Trimurti, is said to take ten primary avatars to restore order on earth. The last of them, Kalki, is prophesied to appear at the end of the present age.

What title, from the Arabic for "successor", did the leaders of the Muslim community take after Muhammad's death?

Caliph remained a living title until 1924, when Atatürk's new Turkish republic abolished the office that Ottoman rulers had claimed since 1517.

In Islamic tradition, which angel visited Muhammad in the Cave of Hira to reveal the first verses of the Quran?

Gabriel, known in Arabic as Jibril, is the same angel who announces the coming birth of Jesus to Mary in the Gospel of Luke.

Which Indian emperor embraced Buddhism after his brutal conquest of Kalinga and helped spread it across Asia?

Ashoka left a mark on modern India too: the four back-to-back lions that topped his pillar at Sarnath were adapted as the republic's State Emblem.

Which Sanskrit epic follows an exiled prince's fight to win back his wife Sita from Ravana, king of Lanka?

The Ramayana runs to nearly 24,000 verses and is traditionally credited to the sage Valmiki. Its hero's most devoted follower is Hanuman, who joins the search for Sita.

Which ancient Jewish manuscripts did Bedouin shepherds first find in jars in the Qumran caves in the 1940s?

The Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books of the Bible, some of them written as early as the 3rd century BCE.

Which Catholic religious order did the Basque nobleman Ignatius of Loyola found in 1540?

The Jesuits were banned outright in 1773, when Pope Clement XIV suppressed the order, and were restored only in 1814. Loyola had found his vocation while recovering from a battle wound.

Which hilltop complex in Lhasa served as the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 until 1959?

Potala Palace rises 13 storeys and holds more than 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and some 200,000 statues. It was later turned into a museum.

Vodou, which blends West and Central African religions with Catholicism, developed in which Caribbean country?

Haiti's Vodou has no central authority. Its spirits, the lwa, are matched with Catholic saints, and worshippers drum, sing and dance to invite one to possess a dancer.

Which Jewish New Year festival is marked by blasts on a ram's horn and by apples dipped in honey?

Rosh Hashanah means "head of the year". It opens the Ten Days of Repentance, and the honey-dipped apples stand for the wish for a sweet year ahead.

Which 12th-century Hindu temple complex, later turned Buddhist, appears on its country's national flag?

Angkor Wat is the largest religious complex in the world, built for the Khmer king Suryavarman II. It has appeared on Cambodian flags since the 19th century.

What is Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622, the starting point of the Islamic calendar, called?

The Hijra began in secret: Muhammad slipped away with his companion Abu Bakr and hid in a cave on the way. Umar later made that year the first of the Muslim calendar.

What is the title of the mosque official who recites the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer?

Muezzin is an office that goes back to Bilal ibn Rabah, a former slave and trusted companion of Muhammad, who is regarded as the first to hold it.

What name is given to the Islamic declaration of faith, whispered into the ear of a newborn and of the dying?

The Shahada declares that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his messenger. In most traditional schools, one sincere recitation is all it takes to become a Muslim.

By what other name is the yarmulke, the brimless skullcap traditionally worn by Jewish men, also known?

Kippah wearers follow the custom that the head should be covered. Most Orthodox men wear one nearly all the time, while many other Jews put one on only for prayer or at synagogue.

What is the community kitchen of a Sikh temple called, where volunteers serve free vegetarian meals to all comers?

Langar diners all sit together on the floor, whatever their religion, caste, gender or wealth. The cooking and serving are done by volunteers as seva, selfless service.

Which Hindu bathing festival, held at four cities including Haridwar, draws the largest human crowds on record?

The Kumbh Mela held at Prayagraj in 2025 drew, by the official count, more than 660 million pilgrims over 45 days. Bathers believe a ritual dip where the rivers meet cleanses them of sin.

What name is given to the puzzling questions, such as the sound of one hand, that Zen students meditate on?

Koan study is meant to bring on kensho, a first glimpse of one's own buddha-nature. The one-hand question was posed by Hakuin, whose methods came to dominate the Rinzai school.

In which English city, seat of the Church of England's senior bishop, was Thomas Becket murdered in 1170?

Canterbury saw its pilgrim numbers soar after four knights killed Becket in the cathedral. The storytellers of Chaucer's famous tales are on their way to his shrine.

Which name do Sikh women traditionally add after their forename, a custom meant to reduce caste prejudice?

Kaur, tradition holds, has been given to women at their initiation into the faith since 1699, though scholars think it came into widespread use only gradually.

Which central text of rabbinic Judaism combines the Mishnah with the later commentary known as the Gemara?

The Talmud comes in two versions. The Babylonian one is the longer and more authoritative, yet it comments on only 37 of the Mishnah's 63 tractates.

Which grandson of Muhammad was killed at Karbala in 680, a death Shia Muslims mourn each year on Ashura?

Husayn had refused to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad ruler Yazid, and his small band was overwhelmed by a far larger army. He is counted as the third Imam of Shia Islam.

The fat, bald "Laughing Buddha" of Chinese statues depicts which wandering 10th-century monk?

Budai means "cloth sack", after the bag in which the poor but contented monk carried everything he owned. Followers later hailed him as Maitreya, the Buddha still to come.

Which pope set off the First Crusade by preaching at the Council of Clermont in 1095?

Urban II never learned how it turned out: he died before news of the crusaders' victory could reach him.

Which self-governing community of Orthodox monks in Greece bars women by both law and religious tradition?

Mount Athos is, in Orthodox tradition, the garden of the Mother of God and so out of bounds to every other woman. Its 20 monasteries run the peninsula as an autonomous region.

Which secretive faith of Lebanon, Syria and Israel began in 11th-century Cairo and admits no converts?

The Druze closed their ranks in 1043, when a leader declared that the sect would take no new members. Believers hold that the soul is reborn in one life after another.

Which Kurdish-speaking religious minority honours a Peacock Angel as leader of seven ruling angels?

Yazidis make an annual pilgrimage to Lalish in Iraq, where the tomb of Sheikh Adi, the 12th-century mystic revered as their central saint, is the holiest site of the faith.

Which Córdoba-born Jewish philosopher wrote The Guide for the Perplexed and served as Saladin's physician?

Maimonides' family was driven from Córdoba after the Almohads took the city and pressed non-Muslims to convert. His writings later shaped Christian thinkers too, Thomas Aquinas among them.

What title is given to a Muslim who has memorised the entire Quran, all 114 chapters and more than 6,000 verses?

Hafiz status takes constant practice to keep, since perfect recall is expected of a text that runs to more than 77,000 words in Classical Arabic.

Which Asian peak, revered by Hindus as the home of Shiva, do pilgrims walk around rather than climb?

Kailash has no recorded ascent, and climbing it is forbidden on religious grounds: Buddhists, Jains and followers of Bon hold it sacred as well.

Which Zoroastrian scripture contains the Gathas, hymns traditionally credited to the prophet Zarathustra himself?

The Avesta survives only in part. An earlier edition was lost after the Islamic conquest of Iran, leaving a small portion scattered across separate manuscript traditions.