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

Which token in a Newfoundland Shrove Tuesday pancake foretells that its finder will become, or marry, a carpenter?

A) A coin

B) A nail

C) A ring

D) A button

Answer · why

B) A nail

A nail means a carpenter, while a coin promises wealth: Newfoundland and Cape Breton families cook little tokens into the pancakes so children can rea...

Q 03/05

Before today's trophy and cash, what prize traditionally awaited the winner of Olney's pancake race?

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 was the prize, collected at the door of St Peter and St Paul's after the dash from the Marketplace; the race was revived in 194...

Q 04/05

On Iceland's Bolludagur, the Monday before Shrove Tuesday, 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...