50 free Chinese Festivals trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which festival is considered the most important one in China?
New Year
It is also celebrated across overseas Chinese communities from Malaysia to the United States.
Q 02Which food is eaten at the Duanwu, or Double Fifth, holiday?
Zongzi
The sticky rice dumplings are wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves into a pyramid shape.
Q 03On which date of the Chinese calendar are dragon boats traditionally raced?
Fifth day of the fifth month
Hence its other English name, the Double Fifth Festival; it lands in late May or early June.
Q 04Dragon boat races commemorate which poet and minister of the state of Chu?
Qu Yuan
Banished for opposing an alliance with Qin, he drowned himself in the Miluo River in despair.
Q 05In which waterway did Qu Yuan drown himself?
The Miluo
Locals raced out in boats to save him, which is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
Q 06Why, according to legend, did people throw rice balls into the river after Qu Yuan died?
So fish would eat them instead of his body
That act is said to be the origin of zongzi.
Q 07Which Chinese holiday was the first added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list, in 2009?
Dragon Boat Festival
The honour came a year after Beijing made it a national public holiday again.
Q 08What is the official English name used in Hong Kong for the Duanwu holiday?
Tuen Ng
Duanwu literally means 'starting five'.
Q 09Realgar wine, drunk at the Double Fifth, is dosed with what mineral?
Arsenic sulfide
It was traditionally a pesticide and antidote, and parents dabbed it on children's faces to repel the five poisonous creatures.
Q 10Which plants were hung above doors at Duanwu to ward off evil?
Calamus, Artemisia and garlic
Calamus leaves are shaped like swords, and the strong smells were thought to repel misfortune.
Q 11What is the Qingming Festival commonly called in English?
Tomb-Sweeping Day
Families clean ancestral graves and burn joss sticks and joss paper.
Q 12Qingming falls how many days after the spring equinox?
15
That puts it on 4, 5 or 6 April, since it tracks a solar term rather than the lunar months.
Q 13What green dumplings are eaten at Qingming in mainland China?
Qingtuan
They are made of glutinous rice with Chinese mugwort or barley grass; Qingming became a public holiday there in 2008.
Q 14Qingming was influenced by the Cold Food Festival commemorating which nobleman?
Q 21The Double Ninth is a statutory holiday in Hong Kong under what name?
Chung Yeung
It is a statutory public holiday there and in Macau.
Q 22Which activity is customary on the Double Ninth Festival?
Climbing a mountain
Tradition also calls for chrysanthemum liquor and wearing the zhuyu plant.
Q 23Which flower is associated with the Double Ninth Festival?
Chrysanthemum
People drink chrysanthemum tea or wine, and many localities host chrysanthemum exhibits.
Q 24Why is the ninth day of the ninth month considered auspicious?
Jie Zitui
He died when his duke set a forest on fire to force him out, so no fires were lit on the anniversary.
Q 15Which Tang emperor in AD 732 limited ancestral rites to once a year, on Qingming?
Xuanzong
He was trying to curb wealthy families' extravagant and ostentatious ceremonies.
Q 16In Taiwan, Qingming was long fixed on 5 April to honour whose death?
Chiang Kai-shek
He died on that date in 1975; the convention faded as his popularity waned.
Q 17The Lantern Festival falls on which day of the first lunar month?
Fifteenth
It coincides with the full moon and marks the final day of the New Year celebrations.
Q 18What activity do children traditionally do with Lantern Festival lanterns?
Solve riddles written on them
Lanterns are almost always red to symbolise good fortune.
Q 19What glutinous rice balls are eaten at the Lantern Festival?
Tangyuan
Southerners call them tangyuan; northerners call them yuanxiao, after the festival itself.
Q 20Which Han ruler, a Buddhist advocate, ordered homes to light lanterns on the 15th night?
Ming
He had noticed monks lighting lanterns in temples on that date, and the court order grew into a folk custom.
Nine is a yang number
Double nine means extra yang, hence the alternative name Double Yang Festival.
Q 25Taiwan has rededicated the Double Ninth Festival as what?
Senior Citizens' Day
The holiday has long been an occasion to care for and appreciate the elderly.
Q 26The Double Ninth is known in Japan as the festival of which flower?
Chrysanthemum
Kiku no Sekku is one of Japan's five sacred ancient festivals, held on 9 September.
Q 27The Qixi Festival celebrates the annual meeting of which mythical couple?
Zhinü and Niulang
The weaver girl and the cowherd are separated by the Milky Way and reunite once a year.
Q 28Which birds form the bridge that lets the Qixi lovers meet?
Magpies
The festival is sometimes called the Magpie Festival for that reason.
Q 29In the Qixi legend, the weaver girl and cowherd symbolise which two stars?
Vega and Altair
The 'Silver River' that separates them is the Milky Way.
Q 30Which Japanese festival was inspired by Qixi?
Tanabata
Korea's Chilseok and Vietnam's Thất Tịch share the same roots.