International Holiday Trivia
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68 free International Holiday trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Looking for holidays-around-the-world trivia? Our main global holidays quiz lives at Holidays Around the World Trivia. This page keeps a companion set focused on international holiday facts.
30 of 68 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Diwali is best known as the Hindu festival of what?
Lights
Lights: families line their homes with rows of clay oil lamps to mark the victory of light over darkness, and many pray that night to Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.
Q 02By popular tradition, Diwali marks whose return to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile?
Rama
Rama's homecoming with Sita after defeating Ravana is the northern Indian story; in the south, the festival instead honours Krishna's victory over the demon Narakasura.
Q 03What do people throw at each other during Holi?
Coloured powder and water
Coloured powder and water fly on the main day; the night before, bonfires recall the demoness Holika, who in legend burned while the devout Prahlad sat unharmed.
Q 04The Hindu festival of Holi welcomes which time of year?
Spring
Spring: Holi's date moves each year because it follows the full moon of the Hindu month of Phalguna, usually landing in late February or March.
Q 05Chinese New Year is also known by what name?
The Spring Festival
The Spring Festival: the name took hold after China adopted the Western calendar in 1912 and 1 January became the official New Year's Day.
Q 06In the Chinese New Year legend, the monster Nian feared loud noises and which colour?
Red
Red paper on the doors and crackling bamboo drove Nian away in the tale, which is said to be why the festival is hung with red and loud with firecrackers.
Q 07What are the cash-filled envelopes given at Chinese New Year called in Mandarin?
Hongbao
Hongbao is the Mandarin term; lai see is Cantonese and angpow Hokkien. Givers favour crisp new notes and avoid any amount with a four in it, because the word sounds like 'death'.
Q 08Songkran, celebrated with nationwide water fights, is the New Year festival of which country?
Thailand
Thailand's traditional New Year runs 13–15 April; the water thrown in the streets, and sprinkled on Buddha statues, symbolises washing away bad luck to start the year afresh.
Q 09Vietnam's Tết falls at roughly the same time as which other holiday?
Lunar New Year in China
Lunar New Year in China and Tết usually fall together because Vietnam's lunisolar calendar is modelled on China's; Vietnamese families mark it with peach blossoms or kumquat trees and bánh chưng, a square sticky-rice cake.
Q 10On Mexico's Day of the Dead, what do families build at home to welcome returning souls?
Altars laden with food
Altars laden with food, called ofrendas, hold the dead's favourite dishes beside candles, sugar skulls and pan de muerto, so that returning souls are treated as honoured guests.
Q 11Which flower is most closely associated with Mexico's Day of the Dead?
Marigold
Marigolds, called cempasúchil in Mexico, are believed to guide the souls of the dead from the cemetery to the family home with their bright petals and strong scent.
Q 12Mexico City's big Day of the Dead parade was created after it appeared in which James Bond film?
Spectre
Spectre (2015) opened with a fictional Day of the Dead parade through Mexico City; the city staged a real one in 2016 to meet tourist demand.
Q 13Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is timed to what astronomical event?
The spring equinox
The spring equinox sets the clock: families gather to await its exact moment, which can fall at any hour, around 20 or 21 March; the festival's roots are Zoroastrian and more than 3,000 years old.
Q 21At the Loy Krathong full-moon festival, people float what on rivers and ponds?
Small decorated baskets with candles
Small decorated baskets with candles, called krathong, are made from banana trunk and leaves and floated to honour the goddess of water, carrying the maker's anger and ill feeling away with them.
Q 22Vesak, or Buddha Day, commemorates which three events in the Buddha's life?
His birth, enlightenment and death
His birth, enlightenment and death are all held to have fallen on the same full-moon day, so many Buddhists mark the three together; the UN recognised Vesak internationally in 1999.
Q 23Mongolia's Naadam festival centres on which 'three games of men'?
Q 14Nowruz's 'haft-sin' table holds seven items whose names all begin with which letter?
S
S: the items start with the Persian letter sin, among them apple (sib), garlic (sir), vinegar (serke) and home-grown sprouts (sabze), which are thrown into running water when the holidays end.
Q 15Iranians end Nowruz on its thirteenth day by doing what?
Picnicking outdoors
Picnicking outdoors is how families see out Sizdah Bedar: by popular belief the number thirteen is unlucky, and a day spent in nature is the way to ward the bad luck off.
Q 16Japan's Obon festival honours whom?
The spirits of one's ancestors
Obon welcomes the spirits of one's ancestors home each summer: families return to their hometowns to clean graves, dance the Bon Odori and float lanterns down rivers to guide the souls back.
Q 17Japan's Setsubun custom involves throwing what while shouting 'Demons out, fortune in'?
Roasted soybeans
Roasted soybeans, called fukumame, are thrown out of the door or at a relative in a demon mask; afterwards you eat one bean for each year of your age, and many also eat an uncut ehomaki sushi roll in silence.
Q 18Japan's Golden Week opens on 29 April, the late Emperor Hirohito's birthday, with which holiday?
Showa Day
Showa Day, named for Hirohito's reign, has opened Golden Week since 2007; the date was the Emperor's Birthday while he lived, then Greenery Day, a name that nodded to his love of plants without mentioning him.
Q 19Korea's Chuseok, on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, is often translated into English as what?
Korean Thanksgiving
Chuseok is often called Korean Thanksgiving because it is a harvest festival: families make songpyeon rice cakes and visit ancestral graves to tidy them and offer food.
Q 20Bali's Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is spent how?
In silence at home
In silence at home: for 24 hours Balinese Hindus make no fire, do no work and stay off the streets, the island's airport and seaports shut, and even tourists must keep to their hotels.
Wrestling, horse racing and archery
Wrestling, horse racing and archery make up Naadam, held 11–13 July; the races are ridden by children, who are lighter, since the contest is chiefly a test of the horse rather than the jockey.
Q 24Eid al-Fitr marks the end of what?
The month-long fast of Ramadan
Eid al-Fitr, the 'festival of breaking the fast', ends the month-long fast of Ramadan; it falls on the first day of Shawwal, begins with a special prayer, and zakat al-fitr must be paid before it.
Q 25Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, honours which prophet's willingness to sacrifice his son?
Ibrahim
Eid al-Adha honours Ibrahim (Abraham), who was ready to sacrifice his son at God's command before a ram was provided instead; families sacrifice an animal and share the meat with the poor.
Q 26Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple after an uprising led by whom?
The Maccabees
The Maccabees, led by Judah Maccabee, drove the Seleucid Greeks from Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple; by tradition a single day's supply of oil then burned for eight, hence the eight nights.
Q 27The Jewish festival of Purim commemorates the rescue of the Jews from Haman as told in which book?
Esther
The Book of Esther, read aloud from a scroll called the Megillah, tells how Queen Esther and Mordecai foiled Haman; the congregation drowns out Haman's name with graggers.
Q 28On Purim, Jews send friends parcels called mishloach manot, which must contain what?
Food and drink
Food and drink: each parcel must hold at least two ready-to-eat items, so that everyone has enough for the Purim feast later in the day; gifts to the poor are a separate duty.
Q 29Bastille Day, the French national day, is celebrated on which date?
14 July
14 July recalls both the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the Fête de la Fédération a year later: the 1880 law that created the holiday never said which, and the French simply call it le 14 juillet.
Q 30The first Bastille Day military parade, in 1880, was held at which racecourse?
Longchamp
Longchamp, the racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne, hosted the review every year until 1914; the parade moved to the Champs-Élysées with the 1919 Victory march led by Joffre, Foch and Pétain.