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49 free Nowruz trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Nowruz trivia quiz covers the Persian New Year from its Zoroastrian roots to the picnic that ends it thirteen days later. It asks what the name means, why the date moves between 19 and 22 March, how Omar Khayyam and Tusi pinned it to the equinox, and what King Jamshid did in the Shahnameh to earn the credit for founding it. From there it goes to Persepolis, the Achaemenid gift ceremonies, the Parthians who kept the festival in autumn and the Taliban ban of the 1990s. The traditions questions cover the whole holiday: the spring cleaning, the seven S items of the Haft-sin table and the goldfish beside it, jumping over bonfires on Chaharshanbe Suri, spoon banging, samanu cooked overnight, sabzi polo with fish, Amu Nowruz and his soot-faced companion Haji Firuz, visiting elders, and throwing the sprouted greens into running water on Sizdah Bedar. Other questions look at Afghanistan's tulip festival and buzkashi, Azerbaijan's four Tuesdays, Kurdish Newroz, Albania's Sultan Nevruz and the 2010 United Nations resolution. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Iran and world holidays quizzes next.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Persian word Nowruz literally mean?
New Day
New Day: now means new and ruz means day; the word was pronounced Nawrōz in Classical Persian.
Q 02Nowruz is New Year's Day on which system of reckoning the year?
The Iranian solar calendar
The Iranian solar calendar, known as the Solar Hijri calendar, is Iran's official calendar and begins its year on Nowruz, unlike the lunar Islamic calendar.
Q 03Which astronomical event fixes the date of Nowruz?
The Northern Hemisphere spring equinox
The Northern Hemisphere spring equinox sets the date, which is why Nowruz falls on or about 20 or 21 March on the Gregorian calendar.
Q 04In which ancient religion do the roots of Nowruz lie?
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism supplied the festival's sacred roots in ancient Iran; Nowruz remains a holy day for Zoroastrians and survived the Muslim conquest of Persia to become a secular national festival.
Q 05For roughly how long has Nowruz been celebrated?
Over 3,000 years
Over 3,000 years, by most reckonings: its roots lie in ancient Iranian religion, and it outlasted the Achaemenid, Parthian and later Persian empires and the Muslim conquest.
Q 06Which poet-mathematician led the 1079 calendar reform that fixed the date of Nowruz?
Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam led the astronomers who produced the Jalali calendar for Sultan Malik-Shah in 1079; Nasir al-Din Tusi later defined Nowruz as the day the sun entered Aries before noon.
Q 07Which Iranian month begins on Nowruz?
Farvardin
Farvardin opens the Iranian year on Nowruz and runs 31 days into late April; Esfand is the last month.
Q 08If the astronomical moment of the new year falls after noon in Tehran, when is Nowruz?
The following day
The following day: when the astronomical new-year moment falls after noon Tehran time the holiday moves to the next day; the observational rule keeps the Iranian calendar in step with the sun.
Q 09According to the Shahnameh, which mythical king founded Nowruz?
Jamshid
Jamshid, in Ferdowsi's epic, had a gem-studded throne raised to the sky; the world's creatures scattered jewels around him and named the day Nowruz.
Q 10Which Greek writer's portrait of Cyrus the Great's court is read as describing early Nowruz?
Xenophon
Xenophon's Cyropaedia describes Cyrus receiving gifts from subject nations in a grand procession, which modern scholars have read as a Nowruz celebration, though Achaemenid inscriptions never name the festival.
Q 11Which parts of Persepolis are thought to have been built specifically for a feast related to Nowruz?
The Apadana and the Hundred Columns Hall
The Apadana and the Hundred Columns Hall, the two great audience halls, carry reliefs of delegations from across the empire bringing tribute, which scholars link to a new-year feast.
Q 12In which season did the Parthians celebrate Nowruz?
Autumn
Autumn was when the Parthian new year fell, the old calendar having drifted, while the festival of Mithra was then held in spring; later rulers moved Nowruz back to spring.
Q 13How many days do the Nowruz holidays last in Iran?
Thirteen
Q 21What is sabzeh on the Haft-sin table?
Sprouted wheat, barley or lentils
Sprouted wheat, barley or lentils, grown in a dish in the weeks before the holiday, stand for rebirth and the greening of spring.
Q 22What is samanu, one of the seven Haft-sin items?
A pudding of germinated wheat
A pudding of germinated wheat, sweet and thick, samanu is cooked by groups of women across the Persian-speaking world, often through the night, singing as they stir.
Q 23Which of these is one of the seven traditional Haft-sin items?
Garlic
Thirteen days of festivities run from the first of the year to the outdoor picnic day that closes them, when families head into the countryside.
Q 14What is the name of the outdoor picnic festival that closes the Iranian new-year holidays?
Sizdah Bedar
Sizdah Bedar is also called Nature Day; families picnic in the countryside, and playing pranks on it is a custom likened to April Fools' Day.
Q 15What is traditionally done with the sprouted greens from the Haft-sin table at the holidays' end?
Thrown into running water
Thrown into running water: the greens are believed to have absorbed the household's ill luck over the holidays, so they are carried out and cast into a stream.
Q 16What is the festival held on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz called?
Chaharshanbe Suri
Chaharshanbe Suri, 'Festive Wednesday', falls on the eve of the year's last Wednesday and is celebrated with fire, firecrackers and fireworks.
Q 17What is the central ritual of the Festive Wednesday celebrated before Nowruz?
Jumping over bonfires
Jumping over bonfires is the heart of the night: jumpers chant for the fire to take their sickly yellow and give its healthy red in return.
Q 18What do disguised Iranians do on Festive Wednesday eve in a custom compared to trick-or-treating?
Bang spoons on bowls door to door
Bang spoons on bowls door to door, in the custom called qashoq-zani, and receive snacks in return; Azerbaijani children instead leave caps on doorsteps and hide until sweets appear.
Q 19In Azerbaijan, on which weekday are the four pre-Novruz element festivals held?
Tuesday
Tuesday nights host the four festivals, each honouring one element in turn: water, fire, wind and earth.
Q 20What is the Haft-sin?
A table of seven items whose names begin with the letter S
A table of seven items whose names begin with the letter S: the seven are often linked to the Amesha Spentas of the Avesta and to the four elements plus humans, animals and plants.
Garlic, sir in Persian, is one of the seven, alongside vinegar (serke), sumac (somāq), the Persian olive (senjed) and three others whose names also start with S.
Q 24Which fruit is the Haft-sin item called sib?
Apple
Apple is sib in Persian, placed on the table for beauty and health; senjed, the Persian olive, is another of the seven.
Q 25Which live creature is often kept in a bowl on the Haft-sin table?
A goldfish
A goldfish in a bowl is a common addition, said to stand for life and movement, alongside mirrors, candles, painted eggs and coins.
Q 26Which flowers are especially popular purchases before Nowruz?
Hyacinths and tulips
Hyacinths and tulips, both spring bulbs, fill the flower markets in the weeks before the holiday; the hyacinth, sonbol, often goes on the Haft-sin table too.
Q 27What is the Afghan Nowruz dish Haft Mēwa?
Seven dried fruits and nuts in syrup
Seven dried fruits and nuts in syrup: raisins, pistachios, hazelnuts, prunes, walnuts, almonds and silver berry are typical, soaked in water until the juices sweeten.
Q 28What is Azerbaijan's Nowruz display of sprouting wheat ringed with dyed eggs on a tray called?
Khoncha
Khoncha, a tray of sprouting wheat ringed with dyed eggs and sweets, carries one egg for each member of the family.
Q 29Which herald of the festival brings children gifts, much like Santa Claus?
Amu Nowruz
Amu Nowruz, 'Uncle Nowruz', is the white-bearded, kindly herald who brings children gifts at the turn of the year, much as Santa Claus does at Christmas.
Q 30How is the Nowruz street jester Haji Firuz traditionally dressed?
Red clothes, felt hat, soot-covered face
Red clothes, felt hat, soot-covered face: so attired he dances through the streets singing and playing a tambourine to announce the new year.