New Year's
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168 free New Year's trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free New Year's trivia questions with answers. From the glittering ball drop in Times Square to the 108 temple bells of Japan, New Year's celebrations span every culture and continent. Whether you're an expert on Hogmanay traditions or curious about why Colombians carry empty suitcases at midnight, these 168 questions will test everything you know about the world's biggest annual celebration.
30 of 168 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Times Square, home of the New Year's Eve ball drop since 1907, went by what name until 1904?
Longacre Square
Longacre Square was renamed in 1904 when The New York Times moved into a new tower there, and the paper threw the square's first New Year's Eve party that December.
Q 02Which crystal maker's panels have covered the Times Square ball since the millennium drop of 1999-2000?
Waterford
Waterford made the millennium ball's crystal in Ireland; the 11,875-pound version that arrived in 2008 stayed on show on the roof all year.
Q 03With the Times Square ball dark for the wartime dimout of 1942 and 1943, how did crowds mark midnight?
A minute of silence
A minute of silence, then chimes rung from sound trucks parked at the foot of the tower, greeted both wartime years; the crowds turned up anyway.
Q 04More than a ton of what is released over the Times Square crowd at midnight on New Year's Eve?
Confetti
Confetti is thrown by hand by a team of volunteers lining the rooftops around the square, led by a man the organisers call their confetti master.
Q 05Which TV host created 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' in 1972 and fronted it until his death in 2012?
Dick Clark
Dick Clark created the special in 1972; after a 2004 stroke he handed main hosting to Ryan Seacrest but kept the midnight countdown himself until his death in 2012.
Q 06Who wrote down 'Auld Lang Syne' in 1788, insisting he had only transcribed it from an old man's singing?
Robert Burns
Robert Burns sent the song to the Scots Musical Museum; its opening echoes a ballad printed in 1711, but the rest of the poem is thought to be his own work.
Q 07What does 'Auld Lang Syne' roughly translate to in English?
Times long past
Times long past is a loose rendering of the Scots, literally 'old long since'; the tune sung today was only paired with the words in 1799, replacing the melody first printed with them.
Q 08Which bandleader's annual CBS broadcast helped make 'Auld Lang Syne' a New Year's tradition?
Guy Lombardo
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played it at midnight on air for nearly half a century; 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' was conceived in 1972 as a youthful alternative to his big-band show.
Q 09Which feared computer glitch was expected to strike as clocks reached midnight on 1 January 2000?
The Y2K bug
The Y2K bug came from programs that stored years as two digits, so 2000 could be read as 1900; after years of costly fixes, the night passed with few major failures.
Q 10What did Danes traditionally hurl against friends' and neighbours' doors on New Year's Eve?
Old crockery
Old crockery: Danes saved chipped dishes all year and smashed them against friends' doors, where a doorstep covered in shards counted as a sign of good luck and strong friendships.
Q 11What colour do Brazilians traditionally wear on New Year's Eve for peace and good luck?
White
White is worn by millions of Brazilians of every faith who crowd the beaches at midnight, throwing white flowers into the sea as offerings to the goddess Iemanjá.
Q 12What do Scots call New Year's Eve, which Edinburgh marks with a huge street party?
Hogmanay
Hogmanay matters enough in Scotland that 2 January is a bank holiday there too; the first visitor after midnight, the 'first-footer', is supposed to set the household's luck for the year.
Q 13What do people in the Philippines traditionally display on New Year's Eve to attract prosperity?
Round fruits
Round fruits, twelve of them for the twelve months, go on the table because circles are thought to attract wealth, which is also why many Filipinos wear polka dots that night.
Q 21What do the hóngbāo envelopes handed to children at Chinese New Year traditionally contain?
Money
Money goes inside, in crisp new notes, and givers avoid any amount with a four in it because the word for four sounds like 'death' in Chinese.
Q 22Which festival brings Chinese New Year celebrations to a close?
Lantern
Lantern Festival falls at the first full moon of the lunar year; riddles are written on the lanterns, and whoever solves one wins a small gift.
Q 23Which beast of Chinese legend, whose name is also the word for 'year', is scared off by New Year firecrackers?
Nian
Nian crept out of hiding each New Year to prey on villagers until they found that loud noise and bright lights sent it running, the story behind the drums and firecrackers.
Q 14In Japan, Buddhist temples ring their bells how many times on New Year's Eve?
108
108 strokes are usually said to stand for the 108 worldly desires of Buddhist teaching, each ring driving one out so that the new year starts clean.
Q 15What do Latin American families set alight in the street at midnight on New Year's Eve?
Life-size effigies
Life-size effigies stuffed with paper and old clothes stand for whatever people disliked about the past twelve months, and are often made to look like a politician or celebrity.
Q 16Which noodles do the Japanese eat on New Year's Eve in the 'year-crossing' dish called toshikoshi?
Soba
Soba noodles are easy to bite through, so eating them is said to cut away the old year's hardships; their length also stands for a long life.
Q 17What do residents of Johannesburg's Hillbrow throw out of windows on New Year's Eve?
Old furniture
Old furniture goes out of the high-rise windows as a literal 'out with the old', a way of dumping unwanted things so that the year starts fresh.
Q 18Colombians hoping for a year of travel walk around the block at midnight carrying what?
An empty suitcase
An empty suitcase is thought to invite a year of journeys; the ritual has cousins elsewhere, with Chileans walking the streets with a case and Costa Ricans dashing across the road with luggage.
Q 19How many animals are in the Chinese zodiac cycle?
12
12 animals take turns in an order that legend credits to a race called by the Jade Emperor, which the Rat won by riding across the river on the Ox's back.
Q 20In the Chinese zodiac's Great Race legend, which animal is tricked out of a place in the cycle?
The cat
The cat loses out through the Rat's trickery in each telling, pushed into the river in one version and cheated at the finish in another, which is said to be why cats hate rats.
Q 24Which Roman leader's calendar reform of 46 BC introduced the 365-day year with leap days?
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar's reform stretched 46 BC to 445 days, the 'year of confusion', to reset the drift, then fixed a 365-day year with one leap day every fourth year.
Q 25The first month of the year takes its name from which Roman god?
Janus
Janus is shown with two faces, and the doors of his shrine in Rome stood open in wartime and were shut only in the rare years of peace.
Q 26England's legal year began on 25 March until 1752, which is why Britain's tax year still starts in which month?
April
April: when eleven days were dropped in 1752, the old new year of 25 March, known as Lady Day, slid to 5 April, and the tax year has turned over in early April ever since.
Q 27The Gregorian calendar, which is used worldwide today, was introduced by which Pope?
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in October 1582 via the papal bull 'Inter gravissimas.' It corrected the drift in the Julian calendar by adjusting leap year rules, and most Catholic countries adopted it immediately.
Q 28Which fruit is dipped in honey at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to wish for a sweet year?
Apples
Apples dipped in honey are eaten after a blessing, and the holiday's challah bread is baked round rather than in its usual long shape.
Q 29Nowruz, the Persian New Year, coincides with which astronomical event?
Spring equinox
Spring equinox is the moment the Persian year turns; on the last Tuesday night before it, people leap over bonfires to leave the old year's ills in the flames.
Q 30Enkutatash, a New Year festival that falls on 11 September, is celebrated in which African country?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia keeps its own calendar, which runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian one, so the country celebrated its turn of the millennium in September 2007.