Month of May Trivia
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205 free Month of May trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free month of May trivia questions with answers. Forty questions on the month of May, spring in the north and autumn in the south. The first round is the month itself: the goddess Maia behind its name, Ovid's rival theory, the emerald birthstone, the poisonous lily of the valley, the Taurus and Gemini signs, and how May bookends the American summer with Labor Day. Then come the days people actually mark: May Day and Beltane, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500 and its bottle of milk, Star Wars Day, Eurovision, Victoria Day and Golden Week. A run of famous May events closes it out, from Lindbergh's flight and the Golden Gate Bridge to Everest, the Lusitania, Napoleon's death and Sgt. Pepper. It suits a classroom, a quiz night or a monthly newsletter. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the month, the holidays and the events involved, and the sentence that establishes it is shown under each explanation.
30 of 205 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Greek myth, Maia, whose name is tied to the month of May, was the eldest of which seven sisters?
The Pleiades
The Pleiades were seven daughters of Atlas, with Maia the eldest; in myth they were turned into the star cluster that is still nicknamed the Seven Sisters.
Q 02In one etymology Ovid records, May honours the 'maiores'; what does that word mean?
Elders
Elders, or ancestors, is the meaning of maiores; in Ovid's Fasti the Muse Urania argues that May honours the old because the next month, June, is named for the young.
Q 03Which of these months has 31 days, like May?
July
July has 31 days, like May; in the knuckle trick, every month that lands on a knuckle has 31 days and every month in a dip between knuckles has fewer.
Q 04Which South American country's Muzo mines yield some of the world's finest emeralds, May's birthstone?
Colombia
Colombia's Muzo people mined emeralds long before the Spanish arrived; the conquistadors needed decades to subdue them, then forced them to work the same mines.
Q 05One of May's birth flowers, the lily of the valley, is notable for being what?
Highly poisonous
Lily of the valley is highly poisonous if eaten, right down to the orange-red berries that follow its sweetly scented white bells.
Q 06Which zodiac sign covers the first three weeks of May?
Taurus
Taurus, the bull, runs from late April to about 20 May; in one Greek telling the bull is Zeus in disguise, carrying the princess Europa off across the sea.
Q 07Which zodiac sign begins around 21 May?
Gemini
Gemini begins around 21 May; its twins are Castor and Pollux, placed among the stars together after Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his immortality with his brother.
Q 08In the Southern Hemisphere, May is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?
November
November is May's seasonal twin: Earth's tilted axis gives the two hemispheres opposite seasons, so May is late autumn in the south, just as November is in the north.
Q 09In old May Day folklore, washing your face in what on 1 May was said to bring beauty?
Morning dew
Morning dew gathered on May Day was thought to keep skin youthful: by Edinburgh tradition, people climb Arthur's Seat at dawn to wash their faces in it.
Q 10Which patriotic observance did the US Congress fix on 1 May in 1958 to counter communist May Day rallies?
Loyalty Day
Loyalty Day began in 1921 as 'Americanization Day', an explicit replacement for International Workers' Day during the first Red Scare; Congress made it official in 1958.
Q 11Cinco de Mayo, on 5 May, celebrates Mexico's 1862 victory over French forces near which city?
Puebla
Puebla is where an outnumbered Mexican army beat the French on 5 May 1862, though the French came back with reinforcements and took the city a year later.
Q 12Which American poet and suffragist called for a Mother's Day for peace decades before the May holiday began?
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe wrote the Civil War anthem 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' in 1861; nine years later she urged mothers everywhere to unite for peace, and went on to ask for a peace day every 2 June.
Q 13Which US president proclaimed Mother's Day a national observance in 1914?
Woodrow Wilson
Q 21Which country hosted and won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956?
Switzerland
Switzerland staged the first contest in Lugano and won it with Lys Assia's 'Refrain'; the voting was held in secret, and juries could even vote for their own country's songs.
Q 22As of the 2026 contest, which two countries shared the Eurovision record of seven wins each?
Ireland and Sweden
Ireland and Sweden each had seven wins as of 2026; Sweden caught up in 2023 with Loreen's 'Tattoo', matching a tally Ireland had built between 1970 and 1996.
Q 23Canadians nickname the Victoria Day weekend 'May Two-Four', a pun on a case of 24 what?
Beers
Beers: a 'two-four' is Canadian slang for a case of 24, a popular buy for the long weekend, and the nickname doubles as a nod to the date the holiday falls around.
Woodrow Wilson issued the proclamation on 9 May 1914; founder Anna Jarvis, who had campaigned for it, later tried to have the holiday rescinded over its commercialisation.
Q 14Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the US summer, falls on which day of May?
The last Monday
Memorial Day falls on the last Monday of May; Congress moved it there from the fixed 30 May date by a 1968 law that took effect in 1971.
Q 15Memorial Day began in 1868 under what earlier name?
Decoration Day
It was called Decoration Day: an 1868 Grand Army of the Republic order set 30 May for decorating the graves of Civil War dead with flowers.
Q 16Which flower completes the Kentucky Derby's nickname, 'The Run for the ___'?
Roses
The winning horse is draped in a blanket of roses; the race lasts only about two minutes.
Q 17The first Kentucky Derby, in May 1875, was run at which track?
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs hosted the first Derby on 17 May 1875; the track is named for John and Henry Churchill, who leased the land to their nephew, the race's founder.
Q 18What does the Indianapolis 500 winner traditionally drink in victory lane?
Milk
Milk became the winner's drink in the 1930s, when a thirsty winner asked for buttermilk, the drink his mother had told him would refresh him on a hot day.
Q 19Why is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway nicknamed the 'Brickyard'?
It was first paved in brick
It was first paved in brick in the fall of 1909, after its original surface of crushed stone and tar broke up; one yard of those bricks still shows at the start-finish line.
Q 20The pun 'May the Fourth be with you' appeared in a 1979 London newspaper ad addressed to which incoming British prime minister?
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives placed the ad, addressed to 'Maggie', in the London Evening News around her 1979 election win; Star Wars fans later adopted the pun for their own annual day.
Q 24International Nurses Day is observed on 12 May because it is the birthday of whom?
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820; her night rounds among wounded soldiers in the Crimean War made her famous as 'the Lady with the Lamp'.
Q 25Which Ohio university saw National Guardsmen kill four students on 4 May 1970?
Kent State
Kent State's shootings fuelled a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close.
Q 26Japan's Golden Week ends on Children's Day, when families fly streamers shaped like which fish?
Carp
Carp streamers, koinobori, fly for Children's Day on 5 May; the carp stands for strength because a Chinese legend has one swim up a waterfall and turn into a dragon.
Q 27The Ascension feast, usually in May, recalls Jesus rising to heaven from which hill?
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, is the traditional site; Acts sets the Ascension forty days after the Resurrection, which is why the feast falls on a Thursday.
Q 28Charles Lindbergh flew solo nonstop from New York to Paris in May 1927 aboard which aircraft?
The Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis was named in honour of Lindbergh's backers in St. Louis, Missouri; its 33½-hour flight on 20–21 May 1927 won him the $25,000 Orteig Prize.
Q 29The Golden Gate Bridge opened in May 1937 painted in which distinctive colour?
International Orange
The bridge was painted International Orange, chosen by consulting architect Irving Morrow; the US Navy had lobbied for black with yellow stripes for visibility.
Q 30When it opened in May 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the world's longest example of which design?
Suspension bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge was the world's longest suspension bridge until 1903; a year after it opened, P. T. Barnum paraded 21 elephants across it, easing doubts about its strength.