Chinese Festivals Trivia
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49 free Chinese Festivals trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Chinese festivals trivia quiz walks through the whole traditional calendar, not just New Year. It covers the Dragon Boat Festival and the poet Qu Yuan, Qingming's tomb-sweeping and green dumplings, the riddle-covered lanterns of the Lantern Festival, mountain climbing and chrysanthemums on the Double Ninth, the magpie bridge of Qixi, the empty front row at Ghost Festival operas, Laba congee and pickled garlic, and the solstice dumplings of Dongzhi. Along the way you will meet the emperors who shaped these holidays, the legends behind them, their Hong Kong and Japanese counterparts, and the years they became public holidays. The opening questions suit anyone who has eaten a mooncake or a zongzi; the later ones reward readers who know which Tang emperor limited ancestral rites to one day a year. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why do families avoid using brooms on Chinese New Year's Day?
Luck could be swept away
Luck could be swept away, so families give the house a thorough clean before New Year to clear out the old year's bad luck, then leave the brooms alone.
Q 02Which food is eaten at the Duanwu, or Double Fifth, holiday?
Zongzi
Zongzi were traditionally wrapped at home for the festival, but today most people buy them ready-made from shops and restaurants, and only some families still make their own.
Q 03Which game is traditionally tried at noon on the Dragon Boat Festival?
Standing an egg on its end
Standing an egg on its end at noon was one of several festival customs believed to keep disease and evil away, along with bathing in herbal water.
Q 04Dragon boat races most famously honour which poet and minister of the state of Chu?
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan was exiled by his king and drowned himself when Qin took Chu's capital, though some regions honour other heroes, such as Wu Zixu, instead.
Q 05In which river did Qu Yuan drown himself?
The Miluo River
The Miluo River is where locals are said to have paddled out to save the poet or recover his body, the tale often given as the origin of dragon boat racing.
Q 06In legend, why did people throw rice into the water after the poet of Chu drowned?
To distract fish from his body
To distract fish from his body, the story goes, rice was thrown in while others beat drums and splashed their paddles to scare the fish away.
Q 07Before Chinese New Year, which household deity is said to report on each family to the Jade Emperor?
The Kitchen God
The Kitchen God is offered candy and other sweets before he leaves, so that he reports only good things about the household.
Q 08What is the official English name used in Hong Kong for the Dragon Boat Festival?
Tuen Ng
Tuen Ng brings a dip for some in Hong Kong: water the dragon boats have raced through is thought to be blessed, so people swim in it for luck and good health.
Q 09Realgar wine, drunk at the Double Fifth, is dosed with what mineral?
Arsenic sulfide
Arsenic sulfide is a poison, yet people drank the wine and painted children's foreheads with it, believing it drove off poisonous creatures and evil.
Q 10Which plants were hung above doors at Duanwu to ward off evil?
Calamus and mugwort
Calamus and mugwort give off strong scents that repel insects, and the calamus plant's sword-shaped leaves were believed to keep evil spirits away.
Q 11What is the Qingming Festival commonly called in English?
Tomb-Sweeping Day
Tomb-Sweeping Day sends families to tidy ancestors' graves and leave offerings, yet it is also a favourite time for spring outings as the weather warms.
Q 12Which pastime is a Qingming tradition?
Flying kites
Flying kites at Qingming comes with a twist: some people cut the string and let the kite drift away, believing it carries off illness and brings good luck.
Q 13At Qingming, which tree's branches are traditionally worn or hung on doors to ward off evil?
Willow
Willow branches were said to keep wandering spirits away, since legend holds that the dead may return to earth at Qingming and not all of them are welcome.
Q 21The Double Ninth is a statutory holiday in Hong Kong under what name?
Chung Yeung
Chung Yeung is a public holiday in Hong Kong, yet in mainland China the same festival brings no day off at all.
Q 22Which activity is customary on the Double Ninth Festival?
Climbing a mountain
Climbing a mountain on that day was believed to keep disease and disaster away, a custom that legend traces back to the Eastern Han dynasty.
Q 23Which plant did people traditionally wear at the Double Ninth to dispel disaster?
Dogwood
Dogwood, in legend, stopped a plague demon in its tracks with its scent, giving a hero the moment he needed to kill it with his sword.
Q 14In legend, the Cold Food Festival, which shaped Qingming, honoured a loyal nobleman who died how?
Burned in a forest fire
Burned in a forest fire, in the usual legend, Jie Zitui died when his duke set fire to the woods to flush him out, and the remorseful duke banned lighting fires on that day.
Q 15Unlike most Chinese festivals, what sets the date of Qingming?
A solar term
A solar term fixes Qingming, the fifth of 24 in the traditional calendar, and it signals warmer weather and the time for spring ploughing and sowing.
Q 16In Taiwan, the Qingming holiday once also marked the death anniversary of which leader?
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek died on the night of Qingming in 1975, so the government tied the anniversary of his death to the holiday each year, a pairing scrapped decades later.
Q 17The Lantern Festival celebrates the lunar year's first what?
Full moon
Full moon night, the 15th of the first lunar month, brings the New Year celebrations to a close with lanterns, lion dances and fireworks.
Q 18What do crowds traditionally do with the lanterns at the Lantern Festival?
Solve riddles on them
Solve riddles on them correctly and the lantern's owner hands over a small gift, a game that has been part of the festival since the Song dynasty.
Q 19What glutinous rice balls are eaten at the Lantern Festival?
Tangyuan
Tangyuan, called yuanxiao in northern China, are eaten as a round shape that stands for family reunion and unity.
Q 20In legend, why did villagers hang lanterns when the Jade Emperor planned to burn their village?
To make it look ablaze
To make it look ablaze, villagers who had killed the Jade Emperor's favourite bird lit lanterns everywhere, and the fooled emperor spared them.
Q 24Why is the ninth day of the ninth month considered auspicious?
Nine is a yang number
Nine is a yang number, and with nine as both the month and the day the yang counts double, so people long ago judged the date worth celebrating.
Q 25In mainland China, the Double Ninth Festival doubles as a day for honouring whom?
The elderly
The elderly are honoured partly because nine, jiu, sounds like the Chinese word for long-lasting, which ties the date to a long life.
Q 26The Double Ninth is known in Japan as the festival of which flower?
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum petals are added to the sake people drink at Japan's Chōyō festival, in the hope that it will bring them a long and healthy life.
Q 27The Qixi Festival celebrates the annual meeting of which mythical couple?
Weaver girl and cowherd
Weaver girl and cowherd married without heaven's permission, until heaven took her back and parted them with a river of stars.
Q 28Which birds form the bridge that lets the Qixi lovers meet?
Magpies
Magpies were so moved by the couple's love that they flew up to form a bridge, and heaven, touched as well, let the pair meet on it once a year.
Q 29In the Qixi legend, the two separated lovers are identified with which two stars?
Vega and Altair
Vega and Altair sit on either side of the Milky Way, and on Qixi night people traditionally looked up at the two stars.
Q 30Which Japanese festival was inspired by Qixi?
Tanabata
Tanabata sees people write wishes on strips of paper and hang them on bamboo, and some regions still hold it in August, following the old calendar.