170 free Carnival trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
73 free Carnival trivia questions with answers. Carnival is the world's biggest party season, and this quiz travels the whole map of it. The questions cover Rio's samba schools and the Sambadrome, the masks and bans of Venice, Trinidad's J'ouvert and steelpan, Notting Hill's sound systems, Cologne's Kölle Alaaf and Nubbel burning, Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Mobile, king cake, the orange-throwing Gilles of Binche and the Battle of Ivrea, Basel's 72-hour Fasnacht, Bonhomme's Quebec winter carnival, Barranquilla, Oruro, Nice, Tenerife and Goa, plus Shrove Tuesday pancakes and the traveling midway born at the 1893 Chicago fair. Easy questions ask which city hosts the largest carnival and what hides inside a king cake; the hard ones want the year Venice's mask-makers got their guild, the first samba school and who brought the first sound system to Notting Hill. It suits a pre-Lent party, a travel-themed pub quiz round or a classroom unit on world festivals. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the individual carnivals, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 170 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'carnival' is often traced to the Late Latin phrase carne levare. What does it mean?
Remove meat
The name points at Lent: the season was the last chance to eat up meat and fat before the fast.
Q 02According to Guinness World Records, which city's carnival is the largest in the world?
Rio de Janeiro
The street carnival puts around two million people a day on the city's streets, on top of the samba-school parades.
Q 03Which pope decided that the Lenten fast would begin on Ash Wednesday?
Gregory the Great
Gregory reigned from 590 to 604, so the pre-Lent blowout has had a fixed finish line for over 1,400 years.
Q 04In the Rhineland, the first modern carnival parade was held in Cologne in which year?
1823
The Festkomitee Kölner Karneval, which still runs the parades and stage shows, was founded the same year.
Q 05Which Belgian town's carnival is famous for its Gilles, performers in wax masks and wooden clogs?
Binche
The Gilles appear mostly on Shrove Tuesday, and UNESCO listed the event as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2003.
Q 06Recife's Galo da Madrugada is described as the world's largest what?
Carnival bloco
A bloco is a street parade group; this one draws well over a million revellers to central Recife on Carnival Saturday.
Q 07What is the frenetic UNESCO-listed carnival music-and-dance style of Recife and Olinda called?
Frevo
Dancers perform acrobatic steps while holding tiny colourful umbrellas.
Q 08Which South American country's Diablada carnival became a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Heritage in 2001?
Bolivia
It is the Carnival of Oruro, a mining city where more than 28,000 dancers take part.
Q 09Which city's famous carnival was outlawed entirely in 1797, with the wearing of masks strictly forbidden?
Venice
The ban came under Emperor Francis II after the fall of the Venetian Republic; the festival stayed dead for nearly two centuries.
Q 10After a long absence, in which year did the Venetian carnival return?
1979
The revival was pushed by the Italian government to bring back Venice's history and culture, and now draws about three million visitors a year.
Q 11Legend dates the Venetian carnival to a military victory in 1162 over the patriarch of which city?
Aquileia
The people supposedly danced in St Mark's Square to celebrate the defeat of Ulrich II.
Q 12Which Venetian mask was a small strapless black velvet oval, worn by patrician women?
Moretta
It had no mouth opening, which made the wearer mute as well as anonymous.
Q 13The long-beaked Venetian plague-doctor mask originates from a 17th-century French physician named what?
Charles de Lorme
The beak was stuffed with herbs and perfumes in the belief they would filter out bad air.
Q 21Which samba school holds the most Rio parade championships, with 22?
Portela
Its symbol is an eagle and its colours are blue and white.
Q 22Rio's first samba-school parades, led by Estácio de Sá and Mangueira, were in which year?
1929
By the 2020s Rio's samba schools numbered more than 200, split into five leagues.
Q 23Rio's Sambadrome, the parade stadium for the samba schools, was designed by which architect?
Oscar Niemeyer
It runs along a 700-metre stretch of Marquês de Sapucaí street and was completed in 1984.
At the 2016 Olympics, Rio's Sambadrome hosted the marathon finish and which other sport?
Q 14Venetian mask-makers, the mascherari, had their own guild with a statute dated 10 April of which year?
1436
Mask wearing was allowed from St Stephen's Day, 26 December, right through to midnight on Shrove Tuesday.
Q 15Cologne's 'fifth season' is declared open on 11 November at precisely what time?
11 minutes past 11
The 11.11 on 11/11 tradition is shared across the Rhineland, then everything goes quiet until the street carnival before Lent.
Q 16What is the traditional Kölsch greeting shouted throughout Cologne's carnival?
Kölle Alaaf!
Shout 'Helau' in Cologne and you will be marked as a visitor from rival Düsseldorf.
Q 17In Cologne's ruling trio, the Dreigestirn, who traditionally portrays the Jungfrau (maiden)?
A man dressed as a woman
The trio of Prinz, Bauer and Jungfrau is granted its titles anew every year.
Q 18Cologne's carnival traditionally ends on the night of Ash Wednesday with the burning of what?
The Nubbel
The Nubbel is a straw effigy that takes the blame for all the sins committed during the crazy days.
Q 19Roughly how many tons of candy are thrown to spectators at Cologne's Rose Monday parade each year?
330
Add 700,000 chocolate bars and 220,000 boxes of pralines to that; the sweets are known as Kamelle.
Q 20The first Carnival festival in Rio occurred in which year?
1723
That first festivity was the entrudo, a rowdy Portuguese import involving throwing water, flour and mud at passers-by.
Archery
The parade avenue made a long, straight shooting range with grandstands already in place.
Q 25Founded in 1928, what was the name of the first samba school, whose name means 'Let Me Speak'?
Deixa Falar
The 'school' label is popularly said to come from the schoolyard where the group first rehearsed.
Q 26In 1950, Dodô and Osmar invented the trio elétrico by playing through Bahia's carnival from which car?
A Ford Model T
Their instrument was the pau elétrico, the 'electric log'; today's trios are giant trucks topped with a stage.
Q 27Salvador's carnival officially lasts how many days, ending at noon on Ash Wednesday?
Six
About 2.5 million people take part, 1.5 million of them tourists.
Q 28J'ouvert, the pre-dawn start of Trinidad's two carnival days, is French for what?
Break of day
Revellers cover themselves in mud, oil and paint before the prettier daytime bands take over.
Q 29Trinidad's carnival dates back to the 1780s and an influx of immigrants from where?
French West Indies
The planters brought masquerade balls; the enslaved population answered with the Canboulay celebrations that shaped the modern festival.
Q 30Canboulay, the festival behind Trinidad's carnival, takes its name from the French for what?
Burnt cane
It recalled the gangs sent to fight fires on sugar plantations.