Lent Trivia
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98 free Lent trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free Lent trivia questions with answers. Lent is forty days that take forty-six, begins with last year's palm leaves and ends on a different day depending on who you ask. These 98 questions explain all of it: why Sundays are not counted, where the ashes come from, what 'shrove' actually means, and why fish never counted as meat. The quiz also covers everything attached to the season — Shrove Tuesday and the pancake race that supposedly began in 1445, Mardi Gras and its krewes, Carnival and the Latin phrase behind its name, Palm Sunday, and the Eastern Great Lent that starts on Clean Monday and counts its forty days the opposite way round. Every answer was checked against a primary reference before publication, so the rules, dates and terminology here are accurate rather than approximate. It works as a parish quiz, a classroom round, or a way to settle what exactly you are allowed to eat on a Friday.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lent's forty days are modelled on which biblical episode?
Jesus fasting in the desert
Jesus fasting in the desert: the Gospels set that fast just before he began his public ministry, and Lent copies it as preparation for Easter.
Q 02Where does the word 'Lent' come from?
An Old English term for spring
An Old English term for spring: lencten meant springtime, probably because the days grow longer in that season.
Q 03In Western churches, why are Sundays not counted as fasting days in Lent?
They are the Lord's Day
Sundays are always the Lord's Day, a weekly celebration of the resurrection, so they are never fast days; that is why the calendar count runs past forty.
Q 04When does the Catholic liturgical season of Lent end?
On the evening of Holy Thursday
On the evening of Holy Thursday: the season closes as the Mass of the Lord's Supper begins, and after its Gloria the church bells fall silent.
Q 05What are the three traditional pillars of Lent?
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving: in Matthew 6, Jesus urges that all three be done in secret, not for show.
Q 06What is giving up a personal pleasure for Lent commonly called?
A Lenten sacrifice
A Lenten sacrifice: it is a voluntary custom, since church law itself only demands fasting and abstinence on set days.
Q 07Ash Wednesday can fall on which holiday?
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day: Ash Wednesday moves with Easter, and in 2024 it fell on 14 February, so Catholics faced a fast on a night of romantic dinners.
Q 08Which words are said as the ashes are imposed?
Remember that you are dust
Remember that you are dust: the words echo God's sentence on Adam in Genesis 3:19, and the missal also offers 'Repent, and believe in the Gospel'.
Q 09The 'shrove' in Shrove Tuesday comes from a verb meaning what?
To absolve through confession
To absolve through confession: Christians went to church that day to confess and be shriven before the fast began.
Q 10Why are pancakes associated with the day before Lent?
They use up eggs, milk and butter
They use up eggs, milk and butter: households cleared out rich foods before the fast, and pancake races grew out of the same custom.
Q 11Which English town claims a pancake race dating from 1445?
Olney
Olney: tradition says a housewife heard the church bell in 1445 and ran to church still holding her frying pan, and since 1950 the town has raced Liberal, Kansas.
Q 12Which treat is eaten in Poland on Tłusty Czwartek, the last Thursday before Lent?
Pączki
Pączki: Polish communities around Detroit hold a Pączki Day of their own, with queues outside bakeries.
Q 13What does 'Mardi Gras' mean in French?
Fat Tuesday
Fat Tuesday refers to the last day of eating rich, fatty food before the fast begins the following morning.
Q 21On which day does Great Lent begin in Eastern Christianity?
Clean Monday
Clean Monday: in Greece and Cyprus it is a public holiday spent on outdoor excursions, and people fly kites.
Q 22How does the Eastern count of the forty days differ from the Western one?
Sundays are included, Holy Week is not
The arithmetic is the mirror image of the Western scheme. Fasting continues through Holy Week regardless.
Q 23Which foods are most commonly given up during Great Lent?
Meat, eggs, dairy and oil
Meat, eggs, dairy and oil: meat is given up a week before eggs and dairy, so the fast tightens in stages before Lent begins.
Q 14What are the social organisations that stage New Orleans Mardi Gras parades called?
Krewes
Krewes: the spelling is a deliberately old-fashioned take on 'crew', thought to have been coined by the Mistick Krewe of Comus.
Q 15At Ivrea's carnival in Italy, teams said to recall a revolt against a tyrant pelt each other with what?
Oranges
Oranges: throwers on foot play the rebels and those on carts the tyrant's guards, after a legendary miller's daughter defied him.
Q 16As of 2025, which carnival is recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world?
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro: in 2021 the Covid-19 pandemic forced the city to call off its carnival.
Q 17In 1823, which city held the first Rose Monday parade of its modern carnival?
Cologne
Cologne: when the 1991 parade was called off over the Gulf War, locals marched its route anyway in an anti-war protest.
Q 18What does the Sunday before Easter commemorate?
Christ's entry into Jerusalem
Christ's entry into Jerusalem: the crowd waved palm branches, long a symbol of victory, to greet him as a king.
Q 19According to the gospels, which animal did Jesus ride on Palm Sunday?
A donkey
A donkey: Matthew presents the ride as fulfilling a prophet's words about a king arriving meek and riding on an ass.
Q 20In colder climates, which trees' branches have been carried in place of palms on Palm Sunday?
Box, olive, willow and yew
Box, olive, willow and yew: the swap ran so deep that the day itself was even called Yew Sunday.
Q 24The first Sunday of Great Lent celebrates the ninth-century return of what to Byzantine churches?
Icons
Icons: after the iconoclast emperor Theophilos died, his widow Theodora lifted the ban, and the images were carried back into the churches in procession.
Q 25In Eastern Christianity, when is the Lenten fast finally broken?
After the Paschal Vigil
After the Paschal Vigil: the fast runs on through Holy Week, so the first meal comes in the small hours of Easter morning.
Q 26Which two days are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics?
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: one opens the season and the other marks the crucifixion, so both call for fasting as well as going without meat.
Q 27What does Britain's monarch hand out on Maundy Thursday?
Silver coins
Silver coins: the ceremony grew out of an older custom in which the sovereign washed poor people's feet on that day.
Q 28What may a Catholic eat on a fast day?
One full meal, two small ones
One full meal, two small ones: the two smaller meals together must not equal a full meal, and church law does not restrict drinks.
Q 29Under Catholic abstinence rules, which of these counts as meat?
Chicken
Chicken counts as meat: the rule covers the flesh of warm-blooded land animals and birds, which is why poultry is forbidden on Lenten Fridays.
Q 30A Cincinnati franchisee's fish sandwich for Catholics on Lenten Fridays became a menu staple at which chain?
McDonald's
McDonald's: company boss Ray Kroc backed his own meatless Hula Burger, but the fish sandwich outsold it and stayed on the menu.