January Trivia
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This January facts and trivia quiz has 179 free questions with answers and covers the whole month: where the name comes from (a two-faced Roman god), how January became the first month of the year, its birthstone, birth flowers and zodiac signs, and the traditions that fill it, from the Times Square ball drop and Scottish first-footing to Epiphany cakes, Burns Night haggis, Coming of Age Day in Japan and Republic Day in India. There is also a run of famous January dates: the Emancipation Proclamation, Ellis Island's first day, the Challenger disaster, the first Super Bowl, the euro's arrival and more. Roughly a third of the questions are easy enough for kids or a classroom warm-up in the first week back, a third are medium, and the rest will stretch adults who think they know their calendar. Every question is multiple choice with four options. Every answer has been checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 179 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The month of January takes its name from which Roman god of beginnings and transitions?
Janus
Janus was invoked at the start of every Roman ceremony, whichever god the ceremony was actually for, which suits a month of beginnings.
Q 02How many days does January have?
31
January has 31 days, one of seven months that long; it has been a 31-day month since Julius Caesar's calendar reform of 45 BC.
Q 03The god January is named for is usually shown with what unusual feature?
A double-sided head
Janus is shown with a double-sided head, two faces on one neck: one looks back at the old year and one forward to the new.
Q 04Which semi-legendary king of Rome traditionally added January and February to the ten-month calendar?
Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius, Rome's second king, is credited with adding January and February to Romulus's 304-day ten-month calendar, which had left winter uncounted.
Q 05Per Livy, in which year BC did the Roman consular year move to 1 January, in response to a rebellion in Hispania?
153 BC
In 153 BC the consuls first took office on 1 January, moved up from 15 March so they could reach the Celtiberian rebellion in Hispania sooner.
Q 06The doors of the Temple of Janus in Rome were shut only when?
Rome was at peace
The doors of Janus's shrine in the Forum stood open in wartime and were shut only when Rome was at peace; Augustus boasted of closing them three times.
Q 07Which gemstone is the birthstone for January?
Garnet
Garnet is January's birthstone; its name comes from the Latin granatum, pomegranate, whose red seeds resemble the crystals.
Q 08Along with the snowdrop, which flower is traditionally January's birth flower?
Carnation
The carnation, Dianthus caryophyllus, is January's birth flower alongside the snowdrop; its genus name comes from the Greek for 'flower of the gods'.
Q 09Galanthus, the snowdrop's genus name, combines the Greek for flower with the Greek word for what?
Milk
Linnaeus gave the genus its formal name in 1753, but Theophrastus described the plant in classical times.
Q 10Which two zodiac signs fall in January?
Capricorn and Aquarius
Capricorn runs from about 22 December to 19 January and Aquarius from about 20 January to 18 February, so both signs fall in January.
Q 11In most of the Northern Hemisphere, January is on average the year's what?
Coldest month
January is the coldest month across most of the Northern Hemisphere because land and sea keep losing heat for weeks after the December solstice; it is July's seasonal twin.
Q 12Earth reaches which point of its orbit in early January?
Perihelion, closest to the Sun
Perihelion, Earth's closest approach to the Sun, falls around 3 January at about 147 million km; seasons come from axial tilt, not distance.
Q 13According to the Maine Farmers' Almanac, the full moon in January is named after which animal?
Wolf
Q 21In Mexico, whoever finds the baby Jesus in a rosca de reyes on 6 January traditionally must do what?
Host a party on Candlemas
The finder must host a party on Candlemas, Día de la Candelaria on 2 February, usually serving tamales and atole to everyone who shared the rosca.
Q 22Superstition says it is unlucky to leave Christmas decorations up after which January date?
Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night, 5 or 6 January depending on how the twelve days are counted, is the traditional deadline; decorations left up after it were said to bring bad luck.
Q 23Why do many Russians celebrate Christmas on 7 January?
January's full moon is the Wolf Moon, a name the Maine Farmers' Almanac began printing in the 1930s, said to recall wolves howling in midwinter.
Q 14The first Times Square ball drop was held on New Year's Eve of which year?
1907
The first ball dropped on 31 December 1907 to welcome 1908; Adolph Ochs of The New York Times arranged it after the city banned his fireworks display.
Q 15The original iron-and-wood Times Square ball, lit by 100 bulbs, weighed how much?
700 pounds
The 1907 ball weighed 700 pounds: a five-foot iron-and-wood sphere lit by one hundred 25-watt bulbs, built by immigrant metalworker Jacob Starr.
Q 16England and its American colonies only adopted 1 January as New Year's Day from which year?
1752
From 1752, under the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, England's legal year began on 1 January instead of 25 March, Lady Day.
Q 17New Year's Day cold-water plunges are nicknamed after which animal?
Polar bear
They are polar bear plunges, named after groups like the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, founded in 1903, whose members swim in the Atlantic on New Year's Day.
Q 18Hogmanay is the Scots word for what?
The last day of the year
Hogmanay is the Scots name for 31 December, the last day of the year; the celebration runs so long that 2 January is also a Scottish bank holiday.
Q 19Who is traditionally preferred as the first-foot across a Scottish threshold after midnight?
A tall, dark-haired man
A tall, dark-haired man is the luckiest first-foot, a preference often traced to Viking raids, when a fair-haired stranger meant trouble; he brings coal, shortbread, whisky or black bun.
Q 20In Western Christianity, the feast of Epiphany on 6 January principally commemorates what?
The visit of the Magi
Western Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus; Eastern churches instead mark his baptism in the Jordan and call the feast Theophany.
The Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar
That calendar currently runs 13 days behind the Gregorian one, so 25 December lands on 7 January.
Q 24Martin Luther King Jr. Day is observed on which day each year?
The third Monday of January
MLK Day falls on the third Monday of January, close to King's 15 January birthday; the King Holiday and Service Act of 1994 also made it a National Day of Service.
Q 25In which year was Martin Luther King Jr. Day first observed as a federal holiday?
1986
The first federal observance was on 20 January 1986, more than two years after the bill became law in November 1983; all fifty states observed the holiday by name only from 2000.
Q 26Martin Luther King Jr. was born on 15 January 1929 in which city?
Atlanta
King was born in Atlanta, at 501 Auburn Avenue in the Sweet Auburn district; born Michael King Jr., he and his father took the name Martin Luther in 1934.
Q 27Australia Day marks the 1788 raising of the Union Flag by which governor?
Arthur Phillip
Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of New South Wales, raised the flag at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, eight days after the First Fleet's lead ships reached Botany Bay.
Q 28India's Republic Day on 26 January commemorates what event in 1950?
The Constitution coming into effect
The date was chosen because the Indian National Congress had declared Purna Swaraj, complete independence, on 26 January 1930.
Q 29Burns Night, celebrated on 25 January, traditionally centres on which dish?
Haggis
Haggis is the centrepiece, piped in and greeted with Burns's 'Address to a Haggis'; the first Burns supper was held by his friends at Burns Cottage in July 1801.
Q 30Since 2000, on which January day has Japan held Coming of Age Day?
The second Monday
Coming of Age Day moved from 15 January to the second Monday of January in 2000 under the Happy Monday System, which shifted several holidays to create long weekends.