Q 01/05

What did contestants do with giant pumpkins at a yearly October event in Windsor, Nova Scotia?

A) Rolled them down a hill

B) Paddled them across a lake

C) Launched them from catapults

D) Stacked them into a tower

Answer · why

B) Paddled them across a lake

Contestants paddled them across a lake, sitting inside the hollowed-out giants for a half-mile race that drew 10,000 spectators in 2008.

Q 02/05

Explorer Martin Frobisher, host of a 1578 Arctic thanksgiving, thought his cargo of rock held what?

A) Gold

B) Silver

C) Copper

D) Diamonds

Answer · why

A) Gold

Gold fever sent Frobisher back north with 15 ships and 147 miners, but the 1,350 tons of ore he carried to England ended up as road fill.

Q 03/05

Martin Frobisher's crew gave thanks in 1578 over salt beef, biscuits and which British side dish?

A) Baked beans

B) Pickled onions

C) Mushy peas

D) Boiled cabbage

Answer · why

C) Mushy peas

Mushy peas rounded out a meal held after ice and storms had scattered Frobisher's fleet, with chaplain Robert Wolfall preaching a sermon of thanks.

Q 04/05

The Order of Good Cheer feasts of 1606 were meant to protect French settlers from which disease?

A) Smallpox

B) Cholera

C) Typhus

D) Scurvy

Answer · why

D) Scurvy

Scurvy had ravaged the settlers' earlier winter camp, and because idleness was blamed for it, the feasts came with hunting duties and entertainment.

Q 05/05

Canadian Thanksgiving always falls on which day of the week, creating an October long weekend?

A) Thursday

B) Friday

C) Sunday

D) Monday

Answer · why

D) Monday

Monday has been the fixed day since 1957, but the big dinner can happen any time over the long weekend, and Sunday is the most common choice.