Q 01/05

Holi is best known as the Hindu festival of what?

A) Lights and lamps

B) Colours, love and spring

C) Harvest and cattle

D) Fasting and prayer

Answer · why

B) Colours, love and spring

It also marks the end of winter and is an invocation for a good spring harvest.

Q 02/05

Holi celebrates the love between Krishna and which cowherd girl of Braj?

A) Lakshmi

B) Sita

C) Parvati

D) Radha

Answer · why

D) Radha

In the Braj region where the pair grew up, celebrations run on for days after the main festival.

Q 03/05

Holi begins on the evening of the full moon in which month of the Hindu calendar?

A) Chaitra

B) Kartika

C) Phalguna

D) Shravana

Answer · why

C) Phalguna

That falls around the middle of March, though sometimes in late February.

Q 04/05

What is the bonfire ceremony held the night before Holi called?

A) Rang Panchami

B) Holika Dahan

C) Dhulandi

D) Vasant Panchami

Answer · why

B) Holika Dahan

Also known as Chhoti or 'Little' Holi, it symbolises the victory of good over evil and the burning of the old.

Q 05/05

In the legend behind the bonfire, Holika tricked her nephew into sitting on a pyre with her. What was his name?

A) Kamadeva

B) Narasimha

C) Hiranyakashipu

D) Prahlada

Answer · why

D) Prahlada

Her fireproof cloak flew off her and wrapped him, so the boy survived and she burned.