Christmas in the Philippines Trivia
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40 free Christmas in the Philippines trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Philippines celebrates the longest Christmas season in the world: carols in September, nine dawn Masses in December, a midnight nochebuena feast, parols on every window and a season that does not really end until the Santo Niño festivals in January. This quiz covers the history from the first recorded Christmas at Fort San Pedro in 1565, the customs of Simbang Gabi, pagmamano and aguinaldo, the food, the songs, the lanterns of San Fernando and the Metro Manila Film Festival. Perfect for Christmas party games, office Monito-Monita nights and Filipino quiz rounds. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do Filipinos popularly call the months when radio stations start playing Christmas songs?
The ber months
The ber months, September to December, are when Christmas trees and decorations go up, giving the Philippines four months of festivities.
Q 02Pasko, the Filipino word for Christmas, comes from Spanish pascua, which most often names which other holiday?
Easter
Easter is what pascua usually means, yet Spanish speakers also wish 'Felices Pascuas' at Christmas, and Filipinos borrowed that sense as Pasko.
Q 03Where did the first documented Philippine Christmas celebration take place, in 1565?
Fort San Pedro, Cebu
Fort San Pedro, Cebu, hosted it because Legazpi's expedition had just built that fort, the first Spanish foothold in the islands, on arriving in 1565.
Q 04Simbang Gabi is a series of how many dawn Masses leading up to Christmas?
Nine
Nine dawn Masses make up Simbang Gabi, and many believe completing all of them grants a wish, a belief a Catholic bishop called a misconception in 2016.
Q 05Why is Simbang Gabi said to have moved from nighttime to dawn?
So farmers could attend before fieldwork
So farmers could attend before fieldwork, the story goes: they left for the fields at sunrise to avoid the noontime sun.
Q 06Misa de Gallo translates as whose Mass?
The Rooster's
The name is also used for the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve that closes the novena.
Q 07Which two rice delicacies are the classic Simbang Gabi treats?
Bibingka and puto bumbong
Bibingka and puto bumbong are sold from stalls set up outside churches before dawn, so worshippers can eat them as they leave Mass.
Q 08What is the name of the midnight feast after the Christmas Eve Mass?
Nochebuena
Nochebuena is when some Filipino families open their Christmas presents, during or after the feast itself.
Q 09Queso de bola, the Christmas cheese ball, is what kind of cheese?
Edam
Edam travels well, hardening instead of spoiling, so it survived the long voyage from the Netherlands and became regular Christmas fare in the Philippines.
Q 10What is the Filipino gesture of pressing an elder's hand to your forehead called?
Pagmamano
Pagmamano turns a greeting into a request: you say 'mano po', touch the elder's hand to your forehead, and the elder usually answers 'God bless you'.
Q 11The cash gift a godparent gives a godchild at Christmas is called what?
Aguinaldo
Aguinaldo is Spanish for Christmas money or a Christmas bonus, so the same word covers a godchild's envelope and the tips Spanish-era workers sought in December.
Q 12The parol lantern represents what?
The star that guided the Magi
The star that guided the Magi is what the parol recalls, yet early parols were rectangles and the five-pointed star only became standard in the American period.
Q 13What makes the lights of the Giant Lantern Festival's huge parols dance in patterns?
Rotating steel barrels
Q 21Which group first recorded 'Tuloy Na Tuloy Pa Rin ang Pasko'?
Apo Hiking Society
Apo Hiking Society recorded it for their 1991 Christmas album Pasko nApo, and Orange & Lemons remade it in 2006 for an ABS-CBN station ID.
Q 22What is the Filipino pageant in which Joseph and Mary seek lodging from house to house?
Panunuluyan
Panunuluyan casts whole households as innkeepers who ritually turn Joseph and Mary away until they reach the church belen before the Christmas Eve Mass.
Q 23December 28, Niños Inocentes, is traditionally marked in the Philippines by what?
Playing practical jokes
Playing practical jokes turns a feast mourning the infants killed by Herod into a Filipino April Fools' Day, where borrowed money is never returned.
Rotating steel barrels called rotors replaced hand-operated switches, flicking thousands of bulbs on and off in sequence.
Q 14Which shell do parol makers use for the more elaborate lanterns?
Capiz
Capiz, the shell of the windowpane oyster, glows when light passes through it, which is why it long served as a substitute for window glass.
Q 15The belen, the Filipino nativity scene, takes its name from the Spanish word for what?
Bethlehem
Bethlehem, Belén in Spanish, gave the belen its name, and St. Francis of Assisi is said to have staged the first one with real people and animals.
Q 16Which city's Belenismo contest has earned it the title "Belen Capital of the Philippines"?
Tarlac
The annual "Belenismo sa Tarlac" pits residents and institutions against each other in nativity-building.
Q 17Which department store's Christmas display of moving mannequins became a famous Manila attraction?
COD
COD's display outlived the store: after COD closed in 2002, the show moved to Greenhills Shopping Center rather than disappearing.
Q 18Which Filipino singer-songwriter recorded the holiday staple 'Christmas in Our Hearts'?
Jose Mari Chan
Jose Mari Chan hears his song return every holiday season, yet he refuses to be called the Father of Filipino Christmas songs.
Q 19"Ang Pasko ay Sumapit" was originally composed in 1933 in which language?
Cebuano
Cebuano was the original: Vicente Rubi's 'Kasadya ning Taknaa' was later credited to Tagalog adapters, and he spent years in court over unpaid royalties.
Q 20Who composed the carol 'Payapang Daigdig' after World War II?
Felipe Padilla de León
Felipe Padilla de León is said to have written this song of peace after seeing Manila leveled by the fighting.
Q 24Filipino families set out twelve round fruits at New Year hoping for what?
Wealth
Wealth is the hope: the round fruits recall coins and the twelve stand for the months, so abundance should last the whole year.
Q 25What is the Philippine Department of Health's New Year firecracker safety campaign called?
Iwas Paputok
Iwas Paputok fights firecracker injuries, the toll that led a 2017 executive order to confine firecrackers to supervised community fireworks displays.
Q 26Three Kings' Day is also known in some areas as Pasko ng Matatanda, meaning what?
Feast of the Elderly
Feast of the Elderly names the day some children still leave their shoes out, hoping the Three Kings will leave small gifts in them.
Q 27The Feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9 centres on which Manila district?
Quiapo
Quiapo Church houses the Nazarene image, and the January 9 Traslación re-enacts its solemn transfer there, though accounts differ on when and from where.
Q 28Which Cebu festival honours the Santo Niño in January?
Sinulog
Sinulog is named for dance steps that mimic a river's current, performed for the Santo Niño image that Magellan's expedition gave Cebu's Queen Juana in 1521.
Q 29Where is Our Lady of Candelaria, whose February 2 feast once closed the Filipino Christmas season, enshrined?
Jaro Cathedral, Iloilo City
Jaro Cathedral, Iloilo City keeps the image on its facade balcony, and Pope John Paul II crowned it in person during his 1981 visit.
Q 30Which festival's entries traditionally open in Philippine cinemas on Christmas Day?
Metro Manila Film Festival
Metro Manila Film Festival entries open on Christmas Day, but in 2020 pandemic restrictions sent the festival online, with its films streamed on Upstream.