Holidays Around the World Trivia
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59 free Holidays Around the World trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Every culture has a day it stops for, and this quiz travels through 55 of them. There are 55 global holiday trivia questions with answers covering the big religious festivals (Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah, Passover, Vesak, Ramadan, Yom Kippur), the great new years (Lunar New Year, Nowruz, Songkran, Tết, Hogmanay), harvest and ancestor days (Chuseok, Obon, Day of the Dead, Qingming, Pongal), and national days from Bastille Day and Waitangi Day to Canada Day and Cinco de Mayo. It also stops at the strange and specific: the tomato fight in Buñol, the exploding snowman in Zurich, the day Bali switches off its airport, the burning of a Viking galley in Shetland, Krampus with his birch rods, and the Japanese holiday invented by a marshmallow company. Questions run from easy to expert, with difficulty marked on each one, so it works for a classroom, a pub quiz or a holiday party. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's article on the holiday in question and each question shows its citation.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Diwali commemorates which figure's return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana?
Rama
Rama: tradition says Ayodhya's citizens lit up the streets with diyas to welcome him home after 14 years of exile.
Q 02Which festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month ends Chinese New Year celebrations?
The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival: it was once one of the few nights young women were allowed out, to admire lanterns and perhaps meet a suitor.
Q 03What are the home altars built for Mexico's Day of the Dead called?
Ofrendas
Ofrendas: families deck them with cempasúchil marigolds, whose bright colour and scent are believed to guide the souls of the dead to the altar.
Q 04Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, celebrates the love between which two deities?
Radha and Krishna
Radha and Krishna: legend says Krishna feared Radha would reject him for his skin colour, until his mother suggested a game of colouring faces.
Q 05Songkran, the Thai New Year festival, is famous for what public activity?
Water fights
Water fights: they grew from pouring water over Buddha images and elders' hands, a gesture meant to wash away the old year's misfortune.
Q 06Eid al-Fitr traditionally begins once people sight what in the evening sky?
A crescent moon
A crescent moon: each Islamic month begins when the new crescent appears, so the date of Eid, the first day of Shawwal, can't be fixed long in advance.
Q 07Hanukkah's eight nights recall one day's supply of what lasting eight days?
Oil
Oil: rabbinic tradition says one cruse kept the Temple menorah lit for eight days, which is why Jews eat foods fried in oil, such as latkes.
Q 08Kwanzaa, the African American holiday created in 1966, takes its name from which language?
Swahili
Swahili: Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa after the Watts riots as a community-building holiday, naming it from matunda ya kwanza, 'first fruits'.
Q 09Rio de Janeiro's Carnival parade is a contest between schools of which dance?
Samba
Samba: each school, rooted in a local neighbourhood, spends months building floats and rehearsing for one judged parade in the Sambadrome.
Q 10Which German festival began in 1810 as the celebration of a Bavarian royal wedding?
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest: the wedding's race was run again the following year, and that decision turned a one-off celebration into a tradition.
Q 11Bastille Day marks the storming of a Paris fortress that was being used as what?
A prison
A prison: yet when Parisians stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789 it held just seven prisoners, and they mainly wanted its gunpowder.
Q 12Guy Fawkes was arrested in 1605 while guarding explosives placed beneath what?
The House of Lords
The House of Lords: the plotters meant to kill James I at the State Opening, and Londoners lit bonfires to celebrate his survival, the root of Bonfire Night.
Q 13Midsummer celebrations in Europe were traditionally fixed to the feast day of which biblical figure on 24 June?
John the Baptist
Q 21Waitangi Day marks an 1840 treaty between the British and which people?
The Māori
The Māori: the English text has chiefs ceding sovereignty, but the Māori text grants only kāwanatanga, governorship, which is why the treaty is still contested.
Q 22Australia Day on 26 January marks the 1788 landing of what?
The First Fleet
The First Fleet: Arthur Phillip judged Botany Bay unsuitable, so he moved the fleet north to Sydney Cove, where the flag was raised on 26 January.
Q 23Canada Day was known by what name until 1982?
Dominion Day
Dominion Day: the 1982 rename began as a private member's bill, which sped through the Commons.
John the Baptist: the Gospel of Luke puts his birth six months before Jesus's, so his feast falls opposite Christmas, with 'St John's fires' lit on its eve.
Q 14During Japan's Obon festival, families make horses from cucumbers and cows from aubergines for whom?
Their ancestors
Their ancestors: the swift cucumber horse brings their spirits home quickly, while the slow aubergine cow carries them back to the other world at a gentle pace.
Q 15On Seollal, Korean New Year, children bow deeply to their elders and are given what?
Money
Money: elders hand out New Year money, sebaetdon, and pass on deokdam, words of wisdom.
Q 16La Tomatina, the tomato-throwing festival, is held in which town?
Buñol
Buñol: when authorities banned the tomato fight in the 1950s, locals protested in 1957 with a mock funeral, carrying a coffin with a giant tomato inside.
Q 17Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is timed to what?
The spring equinox
The spring equinox: Nowruz heralds the arrival of spring, so families give their homes a thorough clean and buy new clothes before it begins.
Q 18During Thailand's Loy Krathong festival, decorated baskets are floated on rivers to thank whom?
The goddess of water
The goddess of water: people thank Phra Mae Khongkha for the year's water and ask forgiveness for using it, while many also honour the Buddha.
Q 19On Saint Lucy's Day, 13 December, girls in Sweden lead processions wearing what on their heads?
A crown of candles
A crown of candles: the Lucia's white gown recalls the saint's purity, and her red sash the blood of her martyrdom.
Q 20In much of Europe, 26 December is the feast of which early Christian martyr?
Stephen
Stephen: remembered as the first Christian martyr, he was stoned to death and died praying that his killers be forgiven.
Q 24Cinco de Mayo commemorates Mexico's 1862 victory over which country at the Battle of Puebla?
France
France: the win was short-lived, as French forces pressed on and installed Maximilian as Mexico's emperor.
Q 25Which island, nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, observes Saint Patrick's Day as a public holiday?
Montserrat
Montserrat: the holiday also commemorates a failed uprising by enslaved people on 17 March 1768, alongside the island's Irish heritage.
Q 26In Alpine folklore, Krampus punishes naughty children on 5 December with what?
Birch rods
Birch rods: Krampus swats naughty children with a bundle of birch branches, and the basket on his back is, in legend, for carting the worst away.
Q 27According to Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas arrives each year by steamboat from which country?
Spain
Spain: each November his steamboat 'arrives' in a different Dutch town, and the national welcome is broadcast live on television.
Q 28Purim celebrates the foiling of Haman's plot, as told in which book of the Bible?
Esther
Esther: Haman picked the date by casting lots, pur, which gave Purim its name, and he was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai.
Q 29Passover commemorates the Israelites' Exodus from slavery in which land?
Egypt
Egypt: the Israelites left in such haste that their dough had no time to rise, which is why matzah, unleavened bread, is eaten at Passover.
Q 30Vesak commemorates three events in the life of the Buddha: his birth, his death, and what?
His enlightenment
His enlightenment: tradition holds that his birth, awakening and death all fell on the same day, which is why one festival marks all three.