Q 01/05

Which spring festival's eve bonfire recalls the demoness burned while trying to kill the boy devotee Prahlada?

A) Holi

B) Lohri

C) Bihu

D) Ugadi

Answer · why

A) Holi

Holi's eve is Holika Dahan, a bonfire marking the fire that burned the demoness Holika instead of Prahlada, a devotee of Vishnu; the coloured powders ...

Q 02/05

Which festival, a public holiday in India, ends Ramadan with dishes of sheer khurma and sweet toasted vermicelli?

A) Muharram

B) Eid al-Adha

C) Eid al-Fitr

D) Shab-e-Barat

Answer · why

C) Eid al-Fitr

Eid al-Fitr starts once the new moon is sighted on Chand Raat, an evening of late shopping for clothes and gifts; the morning prayer is followed by bi...

Q 03/05

At which festival, on the last day of the month of Shravana, do sisters tie a thread on their brothers' wrists?

A) Bhai Dooj

B) Makar Sankranti

C) Janmashtami

D) Raksha Bandhan

Answer · why

D) Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan's thread is the rakhi, a talisman or amulet, and the festival usually falls in August; until the mid-20th century the name more often m...

Q 04/05

Which ten-day festival ends with clay idols paraded and immersed in water, around 150,000 of them in Mumbai alone?

A) Gudi Padwa

B) Ganesh Chaturthi

C) Nag Panchami

D) Krishna Janmashtami

Answer · why

B) Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi became a public spectacle in 1893, when Lokmanya Tilak used it to get around a British ban on public assembly; the tenth-day immersio...

Q 05/05

Which unstitched garment, 4.5 to 9 yards long and usually draped in the Nivi style, is worn over a petticoat?

A) Sari

B) Lehenga

C) Dupatta

D) Lungi

Answer · why

A) Sari

The sari's petticoat has a different name in nearly every language — sāyā in Hindi, parkar in Marathi, ul pavadai in Tamil — and the fitted blouse wor...