January Trivia for Kids
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49 free January Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
25 free January Trivia for Kids questions with answers. Twenty-five easy January questions written for kids aged about 8 to 12. They cover the month itself, from the two-faced Roman god Janus who gives January its name to why it is the coldest month up north and summer down under. There are questions on New Year's Day traditions around the world, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the garnet birthstone, snowflakes and animals that hibernate. Kids can also learn about famous people born in January, like Benjamin Franklin, Betty White, Mozart, Lewis Carroll and Winnie-the-Pooh's creator A. A. Milne, plus big January moments such as Alaska becoming a state, the launch of Wikipedia and the very first iPhone. Nothing is scary or too hard, and every question has a short, friendly explanation. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia, and the sentence that proves it is shown under each explanation, so teachers and parents can trust it.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which month, named for the god of war, began the Roman year before January did?
March
March opened the early Roman year. One Roman tradition says King Numa moved the start to January, the month of Janus, their god of beginnings.
Q 02Which of these months has 31 days, just like January?
August
August has 31 days too. To check any month, make a fist and name the months across your knuckles and the dips between them: every knuckle month has 31.
Q 03January is named after Janus, a Roman god famous for having what?
Two faces
Two faces let Janus look both ways at once, back at the past and ahead to the future, which suited the Romans' god of doorways and beginnings.
Q 04Which Scottish song is traditionally sung as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve?
Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne means roughly 'for old times' sake'; Robert Burns wrote the words down in 1788 and said he had taken them from an old man's singing.
Q 05In New York City, a giant glowing ball drops at midnight on New Year's Eve in which famous place?
Times Square
Times Square got its ball in 1907 because the city had banned the fireworks that the New York Times used to launch from its tower each New Year's Eve.
Q 06In Spain, people traditionally eat twelve of what at midnight on New Year's Eve, one for each chime?
Grapes
Spain's twelve grapes tradition has one grape eaten on each chime of midnight, a wish for good luck in each month of the new year.
Q 07Japanese Buddhist temples mark the end of the old year by sounding which instrument 108 times?
A bell
A bell: each of the 108 slow strikes stands for one of the earthly temptations that Buddhists say trouble people, cleared away before the new year begins.
Q 08Which Roman leader gave the calendar its 365-day year with a leap day every four years?
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar first had to stretch the year 46 BC to 445 days, so the months lined up with the seasons again before his new calendar began.
Q 09Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on which Monday of January each year?
The third Monday
The holiday is fixed to the third Monday of January, so it lands close to King's birthday on 15 January without always falling on that date.
Q 10January's birthstone is the garnet, which is usually what colour?
Deep red
Deep red garnets gave the stone its name, which probably comes from the medieval Latin for pomegranate, a fruit packed with seeds of the same colour.
Q 11The Northern Hemisphere's shortest day falls in which month, though January is usually colder?
December
December has the shortest day, around the 21st, but the land and oceans go on giving up their stored heat for weeks, so the deepest cold arrives in January.
Q 12While children in the north bundle up in January, children in Australia are enjoying which season?
Summer
Australia's seasons are flipped, so January falls in its summer, which is why Christmas and New Year there mean beach weather.
Q 13Benjamin Franklin, born in January 1706, is said to have flown a kite in a storm to study what?
Lightning
Lightning was what Franklin wanted to prove was electricity, and no bolt ever hit his kite: the key on its string simply sparked from the charged storm air.
Q 21Australia Day, celebrated on 26 January, marks the 1788 arrival of which group of ships?
The First Fleet
The First Fleet's eleven ships had reached Botany Bay days earlier, but Governor Arthur Phillip rejected the site and led them north to Sydney Cove.
Q 22The very first Winter Olympic Games were held in January 1924 in which country?
France
Chamonix, France, hosted the 1924 Games in the Alps; the IOC only later named them the inaugural Winter Olympics.
Q 23Every snowflake starts as a tiny ice crystal of which shape?
A hexagon
A hexagon: water molecules freeze into a six-sided pattern, and an arm then grows from each corner, which is why snowflakes have six points.
Q 14Which actress, born on 17 January 1922, played Rose on The Golden Girls?
Betty White
Betty White was first offered the part of Blanche, but she and Rue McClanahan swapped roles before filming so neither would repeat a character she had played before.
Q 15A. A. Milne, born in January 1882, created which famous bear?
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh got his name from Winnie, a real Canadian black bear at London Zoo that Milne's son Christopher Robin loved to visit.
Q 16Lewis Carroll, born in January 1832, wrote about the adventures of which girl?
Alice
Alice shares her name with young Alice Liddell, who heard the tale on a river outing at Oxford in 1862 and asked Carroll to write it down.
Q 17Which composer, born in January 1756, was writing music at five and playing for royal courts a year later?
Mozart
Mozart and his older sister Nannerl were shown off as child wonders at the courts of Munich and Vienna in 1762, then toured Europe for more than three years.
Q 18Which state became the 49th in the US in January 1959?
Alaska
Alaska joined on 3 January 1959. The US had bought the land from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, which worked out at less than two cents an acre.
Q 19Wikipedia, launched in January 2001, takes 'wiki' from which language's word for quick?
Hawaiian
Hawaiian gave the web 'wiki': the first editable site, WikiWikiWeb, was named after the Wiki Wiki shuttle bus at Honolulu's airport.
Q 20Chinese New Year begins a period of celebrations that ends with which event?
The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day, the year's first full moon, when families eat round tangyuan rice balls whose shape stands for togetherness.
Q 24Groundhogs and dormice get through the cold winter months by which survival trick?
Hibernation
Hibernation lets animals such as groundhogs and dormice slow their heartbeat and breathing to save energy until spring.
Q 25In the Farmers' Almanac tradition, January's full moon is named after which animal?
Wolf
January's full moon is the Wolf Moon in American almanacs, a name thought to come from wolves being heard howling in midwinter.
Q 26In Spain, who brings children their presents on the morning of 6 January?
The Three Kings
The Three Kings ride through Spanish towns the evening before while their pages throw sweets to the crowd, and children leave out their shoes for the gifts.
Q 27Which flower is January's birth flower?
Carnation
Carnation: it is also the emblem of Mother's Day, chosen by the holiday's founder, Anna Jarvis, because it had been her own mother's favourite.
Q 28Which zodiac sign takes over from Capricorn around January 20?
Aquarius
Aquarius, the water-bearer, is often said to be Ganymede, the boy in Greek myth whom Zeus carried off to pour drinks for the gods of Olympus.
Q 29Which month's name means 'eighth', its place in the ten-month calendar of early Rome?
October
October kept its number name, from the Latin octo, even after January and February joined the calendar and pushed it down to tenth place.
Q 30The famous Rose Parade opens each new year in which California city?
Pasadena
Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club began the Rose Parade in 1890 to show off California's mild winter while the East was buried in snow.