Holi Trivia
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38 free Holi trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Holi trivia quiz covers the Hindu festival of colours, love and spring, celebrated on the last full moon of the month of Phalguna, usually in March. The easy questions handle the basics: what people throw at each other, the divine couple the festival honours, the bonfire lit the night before, the month it falls in and the countries where it is a public celebration. From there it moves through the stories: Prahlada surviving the pyre while his aunt Holika burned, Vishnu as Narasimha killing Hiranyakashipu at dusk on a doorstep, Yashoda telling Krishna to colour Radha's face, and Shiva burning Kamadeva to ashes. The harder half is for festival buffs: the flowers that make natural gulal, the cannabis drink served in thandai, the half-moon pastry gujiya, the women of Barsana who beat men with sticks, the Sikh martial festival of Hola Mohalla, Bengal's swing festival Dol Jatra, Aurangzeb's 1665 ban, Ranjit Singh's 300 mounds of colour, Tagore's Basanta Utsab, and the varying spellings that reached the Oxford English Dictionary. If you enjoyed our Diwali or Hinduism quizzes, this is the deep dive on the day the whole subcontinent turns pink. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for Holi, its legends, foods, regional variants and related festivals before publishing.
30 of 38 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which season does Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, welcome?
Spring
Spring: Holi marks the end of winter, and for the day the usual rules of caste, class and age are set aside as everyone throws colour at everyone.
Q 02What does the Holi saying 'Bura na mano, Holi hai' mean?
Don't be offended, it's Holi
Don't be offended, it's Holi: people say it after drenching someone, since during the festival friends and even strangers are fair game for colour.
Q 03Holi begins on the evening of the full moon in which month of the Hindu calendar?
Phalguna
Phalguna's full moon is when Holi's bonfires are lit, and the throwing of coloured powder and water follows the next morning.
Q 04What is the bonfire ceremony held the night before Holi called?
Holika Dahan
Holika Dahan, 'Holika's burning', sees people throw wood, grain or chickpeas into the bonfire as a way of letting go of negativity.
Q 05Which boy devotee of Vishnu survived after his fire-immune aunt sat with him in a blazing fire?
Prahlada
Prahlada kept praying to Vishnu and walked out unharmed while his aunt burned; tellings differ on why, from her fireproof shawl blowing onto him to her power simply failing.
Q 06Which demon king, the father of Vishnu's boy devotee, was killed by the god in the form of the man-lion Narasimha?
Hiranyakashipu
Hiranyakashipu hated Vishnu, who had killed his brother, so he tried again and again to have his own Vishnu-worshipping son put to death.
Q 07Narasimha got around a demon king's boon by killing him at which time of day?
At dusk
At dusk, neither day nor night: the boon also barred death indoors or outdoors, so Narasimha held the king on his lap on a doorstep and killed him with his claws.
Q 08What are the syringe-like squirters Holi revellers fill with coloured water called?
Pichkaris
Pichkaris let revellers drench anyone in range, even passing strangers, while others lob balloons filled with coloured water.
Q 09Why did the young Krishna worry that Radha would not like him?
Because of his dark skin colour
Because of his dark skin colour: in one legend his mother Yashoda playfully suggested colouring faces, and the couple's game is said to have begun Holi's colour play.
Q 10Which puranic work by a sage was the first to describe the divine couple playing Holi?
The Garga Samhita
The festival itself is mentioned in the Narada and Bhavishya Puranas and by the poet Kalidasa in the 4th century.
Q 11In Shaivite tellings, Holi marks the return of which god, burned to ashes by Shiva's third eye?
Kamadeva
Kamadeva was brought back after his wife Rati pleaded with Shiva, but only in a disembodied form.
Q 12What is the traditional name for the coloured powders thrown at Holi?
Gulal
Gulal was traditionally ground from flowers with medicinal properties, but cheap synthetic dyes later took over, and some of them irritate skin and eyes.
Q 13The flowers of which tree, called the flame of the forest, are the traditional source of Holi's red and orange colours?
Palash
Palash blooms in a blaze of orange-red around February and March, so its flowers are out just as Holi arrives.
Q 21Holi in Vrindavan's temples has brought colour into the lives of which women, long expected to wear white?
Widows
Widows: after a Supreme Court case over their plight, a charity began organising Holi for them in 2013, and they now throw colour and flowers.
Q 22Which city in the Braj region, a centre of Holi celebrations, is the birthplace of Krishna?
Mathura
In legend, Krishna was born in a prison in Mathura, where his uncle Kamsa ruled, and was smuggled across the Yamuna to be raised safely in Gokul.
Q 23The Braj Holi game Matki Phod, where human pyramids smash a hanging pot, honours which Krishna nickname?
Makhan chor, the butter thief
Q 14Which spice powder is the typical traditional source of yellow Holi colour?
Turmeric
Turmeric is mixed with chickpea flour for the right yellow, yet add a pinch of lime and the same spice turns orange-red.
Q 15Which vegetable is the traditional source of magenta and purple Holi colours?
Beetroot
Beetroot owes its colour to betanin, a pigment food makers also use as a red dye in ice cream and sweets.
Q 16The dried leaves of which plant were a traditional source of Holi's green colour?
Henna
Henna, or mehndi, gives a green powder, and worries over synthetic Holi colours have led many people to prefer natural ones like it.
Q 17What is the half-moon-shaped deep-fried sweet pastry traditionally offered at Holi?
Gujiya
It is stuffed with sweetened khoa, coconut and dried fruit, and looks rather like an empanada.
Q 18Which cold milk drink with almonds, saffron and rose petals is a Holi favourite?
Thandai
Thandai is prized as a cooler as the hot months arrive, and in Varanasi it is often laced with bhang for Holi.
Q 19Bhang, traditionally distributed at Holi, is an edible preparation made from the leaves of which plant?
Cannabis
Cannabis leaves go into bhang, which Varanasi revellers call Lord Shiva's prasad, so it is handed out on Maha Shivaratri as well as Holi.
Q 20In Barsana's Holi, women famously do what to the men who arrive from neighbouring Nandgaon?
Beat them with sticks
Beat them with sticks: the Nandgaon men carry shields, re-enacting Krishna's gang being driven out of Barsana by Radha and her friends.
Makhan chor, the butter thief: women hung their butter out of the boy Krishna's reach, so teams climb on each other's shoulders to break the pot.
Q 24Which Sikh Guru founded Hola Mohalla, the martial festival held the day after Holi at Anandpur Sahib?
Guru Gobind Singh
Guru Gobind Singh wanted his followers to practise for combat, so Hola Mohalla fills the day with mock battles, archery and displays of horsemanship.
Q 25Which Mughal emperor banned the public celebration of Holi by decree in November 1665?
Aurangzeb
Earlier emperors let citizens of all castes throw colour on them; the ban lapsed after his death and Bahadur Shah Zafar even wrote a Holi song.
Q 26In West Bengal, Holi is celebrated as Dol Jatra, meaning what?
Swing festival
Swing festival: images of Radha and Krishna are placed on a decorated swing and rocked while devotees throw coloured powder at them.
Q 27Bengal's Dol Jatra full moon doubles as the birthday of which saint?
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spread devotion in Bengal by leading kirtan, ecstatic group singing and dancing in praise of Radha and Krishna.
Q 28Basanta Utsab, Santiniketan's version of Holi, is associated with which poet?
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore's university at Santiniketan hosts it, with students singing his songs and smearing each other with coloured powder.
Q 29By what name is Holi known in the Caribbean, in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname?
Phagwah
Phagwah reached the Caribbean with Indian indentured labourers, brought in to work the sugar plantations after slavery was abolished.
Q 30Which Manipur festival, merged with Holi, opens by burning a thatched hut?
Yaoshang
Yaoshang also sends children door to door collecting donations, and at night people dance the Thabal Chongba, 'dancing in the moonlight', in circles.