60 free World Cultures trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 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.
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Q 01Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is traditionally celebrated by lighting what?
Diyas, or small oil lamps
The five-day festival also 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
Known as cempasúchil, it decorates home altars called ofrendas that hold 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
UNESCO added the tradition to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.
Q 04Holi, the Hindu festival of coloured powder and water, marks the arrival of which season?
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
The splashing symbolises ritual cleansing to wash away the old year.
Q 06The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, was held to celebrate what?
A royal wedding
Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese, and Munich's fairground is still called the Theresienwiese after her.
Q 07Which Spanish town hosts La Tomatina, the world's biggest food fight?
Buñol
It began as a fight between friends in 1945; since 2013 it has been ticketed and capped at 20,000 so as not to swamp a town of 9,000.
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 first day falls on the new moon between 21 January and 20 February, and doors are hung with red paper-cuts for luck.
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
Its roots are Zoroastrian, and families set a haft-sin table of seven symbolic items beginning with the letter S.
Q 12Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, is celebrated on the full moon of which lunar month?
The eighth
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
'Matunda ya kwanza' means 'first fruits'; an extra 'a' was added so the name would have a symbolic seven letters.
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 always wrapped left side over right, with one exception. Who is dressed right over left?
A person who has died
It is worn with a broad obi sash, zori sandals and tabi socks, and cut from a single long bolt called a tanmono.
Q 23A sari can be as long as how many yards of unstitched fabric?
9
The most common way to drape it is the Nivi style, originally from the Deccan.
Q 14France's national day on 14 July commemorates the storming of which building in 1789?
The Bastille
The Champs-Élysées parade that morning is described as the oldest and largest military parade in Europe.
Q 15Every 5 November, Britons light bonfires and fireworks to mark the foiling of what?
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
One theory traces the name to church alms boxes opened for the poor on that feast day.
Q 17Trick-or-treating grew out of 'guising', a house-to-house Halloween custom from which two countries?
Scotland and Ireland
Children put on a small performance in exchange for treats; the earliest North American record is from British Columbia in 1898.
Q 18The hongi, the traditional Māori greeting, is performed how?
By pressing noses together
The ha, or breath of life, is exchanged; visitors are said to blend with the people of the land.
Q 19The Indian greeting 'namaste' is spoken with palms pressed together in a gesture called what?
Añjali Mudrā
The Thai wai and Burmese mingalaba share the same origin; the standing yoga posture built on it is pranamasana.
Q 20In the Thai wai greeting, how do you show greater respect?
Hold the hands higher and bow lower
The wai is also used to say thank you and sorry, and is repeated when asking permission to leave a house.
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
It was historically worn toga-style by the Asante, Akan and Ewe peoples.
Q 26The áo dài, a long split tunic worn over silk trousers, is the traditional dress of which country?
Vietnam
The name literally means 'long tunic'.
Q 27The fez was banned in 1925 in which country, as part of a modernising 'Hat Revolution'?
Turkey
A century earlier the Ottoman sultan had ordered officials to wear the fez and banned turbans instead.
Q 28Why should chopsticks never be left standing upright in a bowl of rice?
It resembles incense offered to the dead
Chopsticks originated in China over three millennia ago before spreading to Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
Q 29Haggis became Scotland's national dish largely thanks to a 1786 poem by whom?
Robert Burns
'Address to a Haggis' is still recited at Burns suppers, where it is served with neeps, tatties and a dram.
Q 30Poutine, fries with cheese curds and gravy, emerged in the 1950s in which Canadian province?
Quebec
Several towns in the Centre-du-Québec region still claim to have invented it in 1957 or so.