110 free Culture trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
99 free culture trivia questions with answers. Why is a kimono never worn right-over-left unless you are dead? Which number do East Asian buildings skip? Who chases a cheese down an English hill every spring? These culture trivia questions roam the world's customs: Diwali and Holi, Day of the Dead, Songkran and Loy Krathong, Oktoberfest, La Tomatina, Nowruz, Eid, Kwanzaa, Krampus and La Befana, along with dress (kimono, sari, kilt, hanbok), greetings (namaste, hongi, the samurai bow), art forms (flamenco, kabuki, capoeira, haka, throat singing) and everyday habits from chopsticks to hongbao envelopes. The set is built for pub quizzes, classrooms, and anyone who likes knowing why people do what they do. About a third of the questions are gentle, a third need some travel or reading, and the rest will stump most tables. Every answer is checked against a cited source shown under the question, so you can settle the argument with evidence rather than a listicle.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Diwali is best known as the Hindu festival of what?
Lights
It falls between mid-October and mid-November and is also celebrated, in variations, by Jains and Sikhs.
Q 02Which Hindu spring festival celebrates the love of Radha and Krishna with thrown coloured powders?
Holi
It also marks Vishnu's victory as Narasimha over the demon king Hiranyakashipu.
Q 03On which dates is Mexico's Day of the Dead traditionally celebrated?
November 1 and 2
Families gather to remember the departed, often with a humorous tone and funny anecdotes about them.
Q 04Thailand's Songkran new-year festival is celebrated on which date each year?
13 April
The holiday runs to 15 April and lines up with new-year festivals across South and Southeast Asia on the Theravada Buddhist calendar.
Q 05Chinese New Year celebrations end on the 15th day of the year with what?
The Lantern Festival
It falls on the first full moon of the lunisolar year and was already a major festival in the Western Han dynasty.
Q 06Roughly how many visitors does Munich's Oktoberfest draw each year?
Seven million
The world's largest Volksfest runs from mid-September to the first Sunday in October on the Theresienwiese.
Q 07La Tomatina, said to be the world's biggest food fight, is held in which Spanish town?
Buñol
It began as a food fight between friends in the 1940s.
Q 08A kimono is worn left side over right, unless the wearer is what?
Deceased
Right-over-left is reserved for dressing the dead, which is why tourists get corrected quickly.
Q 09A sari can be as long as how many yards of unstitched fabric?
9
Lengths run from 4.5 to 9 yards, worn as a dress in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.
Q 10The modern small version of Scotland's national garment is essentially what?
The bottom half of the older great kilt
The great kilt of the 16th century was a full-length garment whose upper half doubled as a cloak.
Q 11What does the word 'hanbok' literally mean?
Korean clothing
North Koreans use a different name for the same traditional attire.
Q 12Flamenco developed within the gitano subculture of which Spanish region?
Andalusia
It also has historical presence in Extremadura and Murcia; the Romani gitanos drove its professionalisation.
Q 13Kabuki theatre is thought to have been founded by whom?
A female dancer, Izumo no Okuni
Her all-female troupe performed dances and light sketches in Kyoto in the early Edo period, though the form is now performed by men.
Q 21A quinceañera celebrates a girl's which birthday?
15th
The Latin American rite mixes Spanish Catholic traditions with pre-Columbian ones, and the guest of honour usually wears a tiara.
Q 22Japan's hanami custom is the enjoyment of what?
Cherry blossoms
The Japan Meteorological Agency announces the bloom forecast; blossoms last only a week or two, and open in January on Okinawa.
Q 23The Carnival of Venice was abolished in which year?
1797
It had run since the Middle Ages and was revived in the 20th century; it ends on Shrove Tuesday.
What do participants chase down Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire each spring?
Q 14Capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art, was first mentioned in an official document in 1789 as what?
A criminal activity
Scholars trace its roots to engolo, a Bantu martial art from Angola.
Q 15The haka is traditionally performed by whom in Polynesian culture?
Both men and women for many social functions
The All Blacks made one version famous, but haka are ceremonial dances of Māori, Māohi and Maoli culture.
Q 16Which social class in Japan produced the first detailed manuals on how to bow?
The samurai
The rise of the warrior class in the Kamakura period brought disciplined etiquette texts on proper bowing.
Q 17The Māori hongi greeting involves doing what?
Pressing noses together
Foreheads often touch too; it is used at pōwhiri welcome ceremonies.
Q 18The Hindu greeting namaste is usually spoken with what gesture?
Palms pressed together, slight bow
It is used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains at any time of day.
Q 19The word 'sauna' comes from which language?
Finnish
It is an ancient word for both the bath and the bathhouse itself.
Q 20Henna body art, or mehndi, uses a dye made from what?
Dried leaves of a shrub
Lawsonia inermis has stained hair and skin since ancient Egypt; the marks fade in one to three weeks.
A wheel of Double Gloucester
The race is first recorded in 1836 and is probably older; injuries are routine.
Q 25Eid al-Fitr marks the end of what?
Ramadan's month of fasting
It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar.
Q 26Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is timed to what?
The spring equinox
It usually falls between 19 and 22 March and is celebrated by Persianate cultures well beyond Iran.
Q 27Cinco de Mayo commemorates a Mexican victory over which country's army in 1862?
France
General Ignacio Zaragoza won at Puebla; the French later won a second battle there and occupied Mexico City.
Q 28For roughly how long have chopsticks been used in the Sinosphere?
Over 3,000 years
They began in China and spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
Q 29What are the red envelopes of cash given at Chinese New Year called in Mandarin?
Hongbao
Lai see is the Cantonese name; WeChat launched a digital version in the mid-2010s.
Q 30Boxing Day, 26 December, originated where?
The United Kingdom
It began as a day to give gifts to those in need and is now marked across the Commonwealth.