World Cultures Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
110 free World Cultures trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
51 free World Cultures trivia questions with answers. World Cultures trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Culture trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is traditionally celebrated by lighting what?
Diyas, or small oil lamps
Diyas, or small oil lamps, are set in rows on doorsteps and windowsills; the five-day festival marks Rama's return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana and honours Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity.
Q 02Which bright orange flower is used to decorate altars and graves during Mexico's Day of the Dead?
Marigold
Marigolds, called cempasúchil from the Nahuatl, are believed to guide spirits home with their colour and scent; they cover ofrendas, the home altars holding the favourite foods and drinks of the departed.
Q 03On which dates is the Day of the Dead traditionally celebrated?
The first two days of November
The first two days of November: 1 November, Día de los Angelitos, is for children who have died, and 2 November for adults; UNESCO listed the tradition as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.
Q 04Holi, the Hindu festival of coloured powder and water, celebrates love and the arrival of which season?
Spring
Spring; the night before, bonfires are lit for Holika Dahan, the burning of the demoness Holika.
Q 05Thailand's Songkran new year festival, celebrated on 13 April, is famous for what?
Public water fights
Public water fights fill the streets for three days from 13 April; the splashing grew out of gently pouring scented water over Buddha images and elders' hands to wash away the old year.
Q 06The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, was held to celebrate what?
A royal wedding
A royal wedding: Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on 12 October 1810, and Munich's fairground is named the Theresienwiese after her.
Q 07Which Spanish town hosts La Tomatina, the world's biggest food fight?
Buñol
Buñol, a town of about 9,000 near Valencia, has held the tomato fight on the last Wednesday of August since a scuffle between friends in 1945; since 2013 it has been ticketed and capped at 20,000.
Q 08The famous running of the bulls takes place in Pamplona during a festival honouring which saint?
Fermin
The six bulls that run in the morning are the same six fought in the ring that afternoon.
Q 09Chinese New Year celebrations run until which event on the 15th day of the year?
The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao, closes the celebrations on the 15th day under the first full moon of the year, with lantern displays and sweet glutinous rice balls called tangyuan.
Q 10When giving money in a Chinese red envelope, which number should be avoided in the amount?
Four
The word for four sounds like the word for death, which is also why some Hong Kong towers skip every floor from 40 to 49.
Q 11Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated for over 3,000 years, falls on which astronomical event?
The spring equinox
The spring equinox: Nowruz begins at the exact moment the sun crosses the celestial equator, usually 20 or 21 March; its roots are Zoroastrian, and families set a haft-sin table of seven items beginning with the letter S.
Q 12Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, is celebrated on the full moon of which lunar month?
The eighth
The eighth lunar month's full moon, in September or early October; families return to ancestral hometowns, tidy graves and share half-moon rice cakes called songpyeon.
Q 13Kwanzaa, first celebrated in 1966, takes its name from a phrase in which language?
Swahili
Q 21In Japanese business etiquette, the casual eshaku bow inclines the torso by roughly how many degrees?
15
Keirei is deeper and saikeirei, the most formal, deeper still; bowing manuals go back to the samurai of the Kamakura period.
Q 22A kimono is wrapped left over right for everyone except whom?
A person who has died
A person who has died is dressed right over left for burial, so the living always wrap left over right; the garment is cut from a single long bolt called a tanmono.
Q 23A sari can be as long as how many yards of unstitched fabric?
9
9 yards: the Maharashtrian nauvari and other traditional drapes use a nine-yard length, though most modern saris run five to six; the commonest drape, the Nivi style, originated in the Deccan.
Swahili: 'matunda ya kwanza' means 'first fruits', and founder Maulana Karenga added an extra 'a' so the name would have a symbolic seven letters, one for each principle.
Q 14France's national day on 14 July commemorates the storming of which building in 1789?
The Bastille
The Bastille, a royal prison holding just seven inmates, fell to a Paris crowd on 14 July 1789; the Champs-Élysées parade each year is billed as Europe's oldest regular military parade.
Q 15Every 5 November, Britons light bonfires and set off fireworks to mark the 1605 foiling of what?
The Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot; Guy Fawkes was caught guarding the explosives beneath the House of Lords, and Londoners lit bonfires that night to celebrate the king's survival.
Q 16Boxing Day, 26 December, coincides with which saint's feast?
Stephen
Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, has his feast on 26 December; one theory traces the Boxing Day name to church alms boxes opened for the poor on that day.
Q 17Trick-or-treating grew out of 'guising', a house-to-house Halloween custom from which two countries?
Scotland and Ireland
Scotland and Ireland: guisers in disguise went door to door reciting a verse or song in exchange for food or coins, a custom Scottish and Irish emigrants carried to North America in the 19th century.
Q 18The hongi, the traditional Māori greeting, is performed how?
By pressing noses together
By pressing noses together, often with foreheads touching, so the ha, or breath of life, is exchanged; a visitor who has shared the hongi is said to become one with the people of the land.
Q 19The Indian greeting 'namaste' is spoken with palms pressed together in a gesture called what?
Añjali Mudrā
Añjali Mudrā, from the Sanskrit for 'offering', joins the palms at the heart; the Thai wai is built on the same gesture, and the standing yoga pose that uses it is pranamasana.
Q 20In the Thai wai greeting, how do you show greater respect?
Hold the hands higher and bow lower
Hold the hands higher and bow lower: the thumbs rise from chin level for an equal to the brow for a monk, and the head dips further; the wai also serves as thank you and sorry.
Q 24The modern Scottish "small" kilt is essentially the bottom half of what 16th-century predecessor?
The great kilt
The great kilt of the 16th century was a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak.
Q 25Kente cloth, woven in strips of silk and cotton, is officially recognised as a product of which country?
Ghana
Ghana: kente originated with the Asante of Kumasi and the Ewe of the Volta region, and was historically worn toga-style by royalty; the name comes from kenten, the Akan word for basket.
Q 26The áo dài, a long split tunic worn over silk trousers, is the traditional dress of which country?
Vietnam
Vietnam's áo dài, literally 'long tunic', took its modern fitted form in 1930s Hanoi under the designer Cát Tường, known as Le Mur; it is worn by students, brides and flight attendants alike.
Q 27The fez was banned in 1925 in which country, as part of a modernising 'Hat Revolution'?
Turkey
Turkey: Atatürk's Hat Law of November 1925 outlawed the fez in favour of Western brimmed hats; ironically, Sultan Mahmud II had imposed the fez on Ottoman officials in 1829 to replace the turban.
Q 28Why should chopsticks never be left standing upright in a bowl of rice?
It resembles incense offered to the dead
It resembles incense offered to the dead: sticks stood upright in a bowl of rice look like the joss sticks burned at funerals and ancestral altars across China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
Q 29Haggis became Scotland's national dish largely thanks to a 1786 poem by whom?
Robert Burns
Robert Burns wrote 'Address to a Haggis' in 1786, and it is recited at Burns suppers every 25 January, where the haggis is served with neeps, tatties and a dram.
Q 30Poutine, fries with cheese curds and gravy, emerged in the late 1950s in which Canadian province?
Quebec
Quebec: several towns in the Centre-du-Québec region, including Warwick and Drummondville, claim to have invented it in the late 1950s.