130 free February trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free February trivia questions with answers. Forty-seven questions on the shortest month of the year. They cover why February has 28 days and how leap years work, the Roman purification festival that gave the month its name, and the holidays that fill it: Groundhog Day, Candlemas, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, Black History Month, the Super Bowl and Japan's bean-throwing Setsubun and Sapporo Snow Festival. There are questions on things that happened in February, from the discovery of Pluto and John Glenn's orbit to the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Nelson Mandela walking free and the launch of Facebook, plus famous February birthdays including two giants born on the very same day in 1809. Easier questions suit a family or classroom quiz; the later ones on the Roman calendar, Sweden's February 30th and Irish leap-day proposals will test seasoned quizzers. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia, and the sentence that establishes it appears under each explanation, so you can use these February facts for a quiz night, a newsletter or a bulletin board with confidence.
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Q 01February is named after Februa, a Roman ritual of what?
Purification
The rite was held on February 15 in the old lunar calendar, at the full moon.
Q 02Which Roman king is credited with adding January and February to the calendar?
Numa Pompilius
February stayed the last month of the Roman year until around 450 BC, which is why it took the short straw on days.
Q 03Until about 450 BC, February was which month of the Roman calendar year?
Twelfth
The decemvirs moved it to second place; the Romans also sometimes cut it to 23 or 24 days and inserted an extra month after it.
Q 04In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the last month of which meteorological season?
Summer
It is the seasonal twin of August in the north, which is why Rio's Carnival and Australia's beach season fall in it.
Q 05Which gemstone is February's birthstone?
Amethyst
Ancient Greeks carved drinking cups from it, believing the purple stone prevented drunkenness; its name means 'not intoxicated'.
Q 06Which of these is one of February's birth flowers?
Violet
The primrose and the iris share the honour; carnations belong to January and daffodils to March.
Q 07Under the Gregorian calendar, which of these years is NOT a leap year?
2100
Century years only get a February 29 if divisible by 400, so 2000 and 2400 qualify but 2100 does not.
Q 08Which Roman leader's calendar reform of 45 BC introduced the regular leap day?
Julius Caesar
His Julian calendar ran essentially unchanged for about 1,600 years before Pope Gregory XIII adjusted it.
Q 09The papal bull that created the Gregorian calendar, Inter gravissimas, was dated to which day in 1582?
24 February
The new calendar took effect that October, when ten days were dropped, but Protestant and Orthodox countries ignored it for centuries.
Q 10Which country's calendar once had a 30 February, in the year 1712?
Sweden
Sweden had botched a gradual switch to the Gregorian calendar, so it added a double leap day to fall back in line with the Julian one.
Q 11By Irish tradition, what are women permitted to do on 29 February?
Propose marriage
Legend says Saint Bridget talked Saint Patrick down from once every seven years to once every four.
Q 12Which Italian opera composer, famous for The Barber of Seville, was born on 29 February 1792?
Gioachino Rossini
Born in Pesaro on a leap day, he technically celebrated only a handful of true birthdays before dying in 1868.
Q 13Groundhog Day on 2 February grew out of the superstitions of which community?
Pennsylvania Dutch
If the groundhog sees its shadow, winter lasts six more weeks; the lore links to Candlemas weather sayings from Europe.
Q 21In most of Latin America, 14 February is celebrated under what name?
Día de los Enamorados
It doubles as a day of friendship, and in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador people play 'Amigo secreto', a Secret Santa-style gift game.
Q 22How many members of Chicago's North Side Gang were killed in the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre?
Seven
Two of the gunmen were dressed as police officers, and the intended target, Bugs Moran, had not yet arrived.
Q 23What is the official federal name of the US holiday most people call Presidents' Day?
Washington's Birthday
It falls on the third Monday of February and has honoured Washington federally since 1879; states add Lincoln, Jefferson or others as they like.
Q 14Punxsutawney Phil makes his prediction from a spot with what name?
Gobbler's Knob
The top-hatted 'Inner Circle' claim to interpret Phil, and prepare two scrolls in advance so either verdict is ready.
Q 15In what year did the Punxsutawney Groundhog Day ceremony formally begin?
1887
The groundhog was not given the name Phil until 1961, though the event insists it has been the same animal all along.
Q 16Groundhog Day (1993) was shot almost entirely in which Illinois town standing in for Punxsutawney?
Woodstock
Bill Murray's weatherman relives 2 February over and over; the Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2006.
Q 17Candlemas, on 2 February, commemorates which event from the Gospel of Luke?
The presentation of Jesus at the Temple
Churchgoers bring candles to be blessed for the year, a symbol of Christ as 'Light of the World'.
Q 18Imbolc, the Gaelic festival on 1 February, is the feast day of which saint?
Brigid
It marks the start of spring, roughly halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
Q 19Which Roman festival, held 13-15 February, is often cited as a pagan ancestor of Valentine's Day?
Lupercalia
Valentine's Day had no romantic meaning at all until Chaucer's poetry in the 14th century, some 700 years after Lupercalia had died out.
Q 20Which medieval English poet is credited with first linking Saint Valentine's Day to romantic love?
Geoffrey Chaucer
Sending flowers, sweets and 'valentines' took off in 18th-century England before mass-produced cards arrived in the 1800s.
Q 24Which two famous men were both born on 12 February 1809?
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin
One in a Kentucky log cabin, the other at The Mount in Shrewsbury, England, on the same day.
Q 25Which historian created Negro History Week in 1926, the forerunner of Black History Month?
Carter G. Woodson
President Gerald Ford recognised the full month in 1976, during the US Bicentennial.
Q 26Negro History Week's February date held the birthdays of Lincoln and which other man?
Frederick Douglass
Black communities had marked both birthdays since the late 1800s; a Douglass Day was taught in Washington DC schools from 1897.
Q 27Which country observes Black History Month in October rather than February?
United Kingdom
The US and Canada both mark it in February; Ireland and the UK chose the autumn.
Q 28Which Super Bowl was the first played in February, after 9/11 disrupted the 2001 season?
XXXVI
The Patriots beat the Rams; from 2004 the game settled on the first Sunday of February and since 2022 the second.
Q 29Which Super Bowl, played in 2016, was the only one branded with ordinary numerals?
50
The Broncos beat the Panthers in Peyton Manning's final game, and the numbering went back to Roman numerals with Super Bowl LI.
Q 30Which Japanese festival on or around 3 February involves throwing roasted beans to drive out demons?
Setsubun
The word for bean, mame, can be written as 'devil's eye', and the day after is Risshun, the old first day of spring.