Vaisakhi Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
48 free Vaisakhi trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Vaisakhi is two festivals in one. For Punjabi farmers it has always been the day the spring harvest comes in; for Sikhs it is the day in 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa, the order whose initiates still carry its name and its symbols. The same mid-April sunrise opens the solar new year from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to Bengal, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. These 48 questions start with the 1699 gathering and what was asked of the first volunteers, then move through the Golden Temple, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919 and its long afterlife in British politics and Indian cinema, the nagar kirtan processions, gatka and bhangra, the foods served at every gurdwara, and the cousin new years that share the date. About a fifth are genuinely hard. Play it to see how much of the day's history you actually know, or print it for a classroom or community round.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did Guru Gobind Singh, sword drawn, ask volunteers at the 1699 Vaisakhi gathering to sacrifice?
Their head
Their head: the Guru called for a volunteer willing to sacrifice his head, and the five who stepped forward one by one became the first members of the Khalsa.
Q 02Guru Arjan built the Golden Temple lower than the city around it to emphasise which virtue?
Humility
Humility: Guru Arjan set the shrine on a lower level so that even the humblest had to step down to enter, and gave it entrances on all four sides to show it was open to every caste and creed.
Q 03Which US rapper featured on the 2003 remix of Panjabi MC's bhangra hit 'Mundian To Bach Ke'?
Jay-Z
Jay-Z rapped on the 2003 remix, released as 'Beware of the Boys'; Panjabi MC had built the 1998 original on the bassline of the Knight Rider TV theme, and it topped the charts in Italy.
Q 04Which river goddess, in one tradition, descended from heaven on Vaisakhi, a day of ritual bathing?
Ganga
Ganga, the Ganges, came down from Svarga on Vaisakhi in one telling, so Hindus bathe in sacred rivers, visit temples and give charity of water pitchers and seasonal fruit.
Q 05Whose 1801 coronation as Maharaja of the Sikh Empire was timed to coincide with Vaisakhi?
Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh was proclaimed Maharaja on 12 April 1801, with Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of the first guru, conducting the coronation that created a unified Sikh state.
Q 06Which future UK PM, then War Secretary, told the Commons in 1920 the Amritsar massacre was 'a monstrous event'?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill called the shooting 'a monstrous event' standing 'in singular and sinister isolation'; MPs then backed the government's removal of Dyer by 230 votes to 129, though the House of Lords took his side.
Q 07Who played the lead in 'Sardar Udham', the 2021 Shoojit Sircar film about avenging Jallianwala Bagh?
Vicky Kaushal
Vicky Kaushal took a role first meant for Irrfan Khan, who withdrew because of ill health; delayed by the pandemic, the film skipped cinemas and premiered on Amazon Prime Video in October 2021.
Q 08Which country fixed its national calendar so Pohela Boishakh, its new year, always falls on 14 April?
Bangladesh
Bangladesh fixed its national calendar so the new year always lands on 14 April, while India's West Bengal and Tripura mark it a day later in most years.
Q 09Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa in which Punjab town, set up by his father near the Sutlej?
Anandpur Sahib
Anandpur Sahib, the 'city of bliss', was founded by the ninth guru; his son later started Hola Mohalla there, a spring festival of mock battles and martial displays.
Q 10Who leads a Vaisakhi nagar kirtan procession, robed in saffron ahead of the scripture's float?
The Panj Pyare
The Panj Pyare, five Sikhs standing for the first initiates of 1699, walk ahead of the float bearing the Guru Granth Sahib, with food handed out from floats that follow.
Q 11The city of Amritsar takes its name from the Amrit Sarovar, a phrase of Sanskrit origin meaning what?
Pool of Nectar
Pool of Nectar is the sacred tank that Guru Ram Das ordered dug when he founded the city in 1577; the Golden Temple was later raised on an island at its centre.
Q 12Which Mughal emperor had Guru Tegh Bahadur executed in 1675, leaving his young son Gobind as the tenth guru?
Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb had the ninth guru executed in Delhi, in Sikh tradition for refusing to convert to Islam; the boy who succeeded him went on to found the Khalsa on Vaisakhi 1699.
Q 13Which Kerala new-year festival falls on the same mid-April day as Vaisakhi?
Vishu
Q 21Vaisakhi celebrates the harvest of which winter-sown crop season, whose name comes from a word for 'spring'?
Rabi
Rabi comes from the Arabic for 'spring', the season when its wheat and barley are reaped; the kharif crops that follow take their name from the Arabic for 'autumn'.
Q 22Hindu Vaisakhi custom calls for daan (charity) of water pitchers, seasonal fruit and what else?
Hand fans
Hand fans, water pitchers and seasonal fruit make up the daan considered mandatory for the day, given alongside temple visits and bathing in sacred rivers.
Q 23Which Sufi saint of Lahore is said to have laid the Golden Temple's foundation stone for Guru Arjan?
Mian Mir
Vishu opens with the Vishukkani: rice, fruit, coins and golden laburnum blossoms are set out so that they are the first thing the family sees on new year's morning.
Q 14Gatka, the Sikh martial art shown off at Vaisakhi processions, simulates sword fighting with what?
Wooden sticks
Wooden sticks of 91 to 107 cm stand in for swords, paired with a shield called the phari; the name gatka may come from a Sanskrit word for 'mace'.
Q 15The Nishan Sahib, the Sikh flag, is washed each Vaisakhi with water and which other liquid?
Milk
Milk and water wash the flag every April, and the pole itself is wrapped in a fabric cover called a chola topped with a steel Khanda.
Q 16Which London district, known as 'Little Punjab', holds its Vaisakhi procession a week or two early?
Southall
Southall drew Punjabi migrants from the 1950s through a nearby rubber factory whose manager had served alongside Sikh soldiers; its nagar kirtan falls on a Sunday a week or two before Vaisakhi.
Q 17Which British monarch stood in a 30-second silence at Jallianwala Bagh during a state visit to India?
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II paid her respects on 14 October 1997 during a state visit, a day after calling the massacre 'a distressing example' of a difficult shared past at a Delhi banquet; no apology was offered.
Q 18Which patriotic phrase accompanies the eternal flame at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial?
Vande Mataram
Vande Mataram, 'Mother, I bow to thee', marks the Amar Jyoti flame under a domed meditation area; the song became a rallying cry of the independence movement, and the colonial government made singing it in public a crime.
Q 19Which Tamil new-year festival, opening the month of Chittirai, falls on the same day as Vaisakhi?
Puthandu
Puthandu opens the month of Chittirai on or about 14 April; families clean the house, set out a tray of fruit, flowers and auspicious items, and share a mango pachadi that mixes sweet, sour and bitter flavours.
Q 20Choul Chnam Thmey, a three-day holiday sharing Vaisakhi's solar new-year date, is celebrated where?
Cambodia
Cambodia's Khmer new year starts on 13 or 14 April, when the harvest is in and farmers enjoy the fruits of their labour before the rains arrive.
Mian Mir belonged to the Qadiri order; the story first appears in later accounts and is unproven, but it is told as a sign that the Sikh tradition welcomed people of every faith.
Q 24Which Afghan ruler had the Golden Temple blown up with gunpowder in 1762?
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Ahmad Shah Durrani, also called Abdali, had first attacked Amritsar and desecrated the shrine in 1757, and the Sikhs rebuilt it after each assault.
Q 25Guru Gobind Singh prepared the first amrit in 1699 by stirring sweetened water with a sword in what?
An iron bowl
An iron bowl held the water and sugar, stirred with a double-edged khanda while scripture was recited, and the initiates drank it in turn.
Q 26Which trade, alongside farmer, shopkeeper and tailor, was among the first five initiated in 1699?
Barber
Barber was the trade of one of the five beloved ones, who came from as far apart as Lahore, Gujarat and Karnataka, making the new order pointedly caste-blind.
Q 27Which Punjabi folk dance has women clapping out the rhythm in a circle, with no drum needed?
Giddha
Giddha is often billed as the women's counterpart to bhangra; a lead singer recites a boli and the ring of dancers answers with the refrain, clapping the beat themselves.
Q 28Which gurdwara sweet, made from equal quantities of flour, sugar and ghee, is received in cupped hands?
Karah parshad
Karah parshad is handed out towards the end of a gurdwara service to everyone present, and is always received in cupped hands as a gift from God.
Q 29Langar, the free meal served to all at Vaisakhi, was made a key institution by which third guru?
Amar Das
Amar Das required everyone, whatever their caste or class, to dine together, building on the kitchen the first guru had introduced around 1500.
Q 30Which president of India opened the Jallianwala Bagh memorial on 13 April 1961, with Nehru present?
Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad, India's first president, opened it on the massacre's 42nd anniversary; a trust set up in 1920 after a Congress resolution had bought the garden so that it could become a memorial.