Q 01/05

Which group of settlers, hostile to old church festivals, kept Halloween out of colonial New England?

A) The Quakers

B) The Puritans

C) The Shakers

D) The Amish

Answer · why

B) The Puritans

The Puritans rejected Halloween, like Christmas, as a relic of the old church calendar, while Anglican colonists in the South and Catholics in Marylan...

Q 02/05

The green-skinned witch of Halloween costumes was made famous by which classic film?

A) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

B) Sleeping Beauty

C) The Wizard of Oz

D) Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Answer · why

C) The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz gave the Wicked Witch her green skin in 1939, with copper-based make-up on Margaret Hamilton; in L. Frank Baum's book she has no gree...

Q 03/05

What vegetable was originally carved into Halloween lanterns before pumpkins became the standard?

A) Squash

B) Turnips

C) Potatoes

D) Beets

Answer · why

B) Turnips

Immigrants to North America switched to the native pumpkin because it is much softer and much larger than a turnip, and so far easier to carve.

Q 04/05

Which ancient Celtic festival is most often named as a root of Halloween?

A) Beltane

B) Imbolc

C) Samhain

D) Lughnasadh

Answer · why

C) Samhain

Samhain marked the end of harvest and the start of winter in Gaelic lands, a night when the boundary with the Otherworld was thought to blur so that s...

Q 05/05

Which Halloween sweet was originally marketed under the name 'Chicken Feed'?

A) Jelly beans

B) Candy corn

C) Circus peanuts

D) Gumdrops

Answer · why

B) Candy corn

Candy corn was sold as Chicken Feed because, when it appeared in the late 1800s, corn was thought of as feed for farm animals rather than food for peo...