Q 01/05

'Short shrift', today a curt brush-off, originally named the hurried confession granted to whom?

A) Condemned prisoners

B) Dying monarchs

C) Runaway monks

D) Sailors facing storms

Answer · why

A) Condemned prisoners

Condemned prisoners got a short shrift, a rushed confession before execution; shrift is the noun from shrive, the verb whose past tense gives Shrove T...

Q 02/05

In Newfoundland's fortune-telling Shrove Tuesday pancakes, a hidden nail means the finder will become, or marry, what?

A) A blacksmith

B) A carpenter

C) A shipbuilder

D) A cobbler

Answer · why

B) A carpenter

A carpenter is the nail's promise, while a coin means riches, a pencil stub a teacher and a holy medal a religious calling; families cook the tokens i...

Q 03/05

What prize traditionally awaits the winner of Olney's pancake race at the church door?

A) A year's supply of flour

B) A silver frying pan

C) A kiss from the verger

D) A front pew in church

Answer · why

C) A kiss from the verger

A kiss from the verger, the 'kiss of peace', greets the winner at St Peter and St Paul's; the race had lapsed until the vicar revived it in 1948, and ...

Q 04/05

On Iceland's Bolludagur, what do children do to their parents to earn cream buns?

A) Serenade them at dawn

B) Pelt them with snowballs

C) Hide their shoes around the house

D) Spank them with a paper stick

Answer · why

D) Spank them with a paper stick

Children spank them with a paper stick, decorated with coloured strips, chanting 'bolla, bolla, bolla!' until the buns appear; Iceland took the custom...

Q 05/05

Spanish towns close carnival on Ash Wednesday with a mock funeral, painted by Goya, for which creature?

A) A sardine

B) A pig

C) A rooster

D) A donkey

Answer · why

A) A sardine

A sardine, usually an effigy, is paraded and then set alight in the Entierro de la Sardina, a burial of the past so society can be reborn; Goya painte...