World Cultures Trivia
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109 free World Cultures trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
51 free World Cultures trivia questions with answers. World Cultures trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Culture trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is traditionally celebrated by lighting what?
Diyas, or small oil lamps
Diyas, or small oil lamps, are lit on the new-moon night to invite Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, into the home; in northern India the festival also marks Rama's return to Ayodhya.
Q 02Which bright orange flower is used to decorate altars and graves during Mexico's Day of the Dead?
Marigold
Marigolds, known in Mexico as cempasúchil, are believed to guide spirits home with their colour and strong scent; they cover ofrendas, the home altars holding the favourite foods and drinks of the departed.
Q 03Mexico's Day of the Dead ends on 2 November, the Catholic feast known as what?
All Souls' Day
All Souls' Day follows All Saints' Day on 1 November; over the two days Mexican families adorn graves with candles and the favourite foods of dead relatives to coax them home for a reunion.
Q 04Holi, the Hindu festival of coloured powder and water, celebrates love and the arrival of which season?
Spring
Spring; the night before, bonfires are lit for Holika Dahan, the burning of the demoness Holika.
Q 05Thailand's Songkran new year festival, celebrated on 13 April, is famous for what?
Public water fights
Public water fights fill the streets for three days from 13 April; in temple and family rites, water is also poured over Buddha images and elders' hands, as an act of cleansing and blessing.
Q 06The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, was held to celebrate what?
A royal wedding
A royal wedding: Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on 12 October 1810, and Munich's fairground is named the Theresienwiese after her.
Q 07Which Spanish town hosts La Tomatina, the world's biggest food fight?
Buñol
Buñol, a town of about 9,000 near Valencia, traces the tomato fight to a brawl at a street parade in 1945; since 2013 entry has been ticketed and capped at 20,000.
Q 08The famous running of the bulls takes place in Pamplona during a festival honouring which saint?
Fermin
Fermin, by tradition Pamplona's first bishop, is honoured from 6 to 14 July; the six bulls that run through the streets each morning are fought in the ring that same afternoon.
Q 09Chinese New Year celebrations run until which event on the 15th day of the year?
The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival closes the celebrations under the year's first full moon; lanterns are hung with riddles, and whoever solves one wins a small gift.
Q 10When giving money in a Chinese red envelope, which number should be avoided in the amount?
Four
Four sounds like the word for death in Chinese, so amounts such as 40, 400 or 444 are avoided too; the same fear leaves many East Asian buildings without a fourth floor.
Q 11Nowruz, the Persian New Year, falls on which astronomical event?
The spring equinox
The spring equinox: Nowruz begins at the instant the sun crosses the celestial equator, around 21 March; its roots are Zoroastrian, and families set a haft-sin table of seven items beginning with the letter S.
Q 12Chuseok, an autumn harvest festival when families return to their ancestral hometowns, is a major holiday for which people?
Koreans
Koreans mark Chuseok on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, tidying ancestral graves and sharing songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes steamed over pine needles for their scent.
Q 13Kwanzaa, first celebrated in 1966, takes its name from a phrase in which language?
Swahili
Q 21In Japanese etiquette, what are the meishi that people offer with both hands?
Business cards
Business cards, or meishi, are offered with both hands, studied for a moment and then laid carefully on the table or in a card holder, a small ritual meant to show respect.
Q 22Whose kimono is wrapped right over left, the reverse of the usual way?
A person who has died
A person who has died is dressed right over left for burial, so a living wearer who gets the wrap backwards is dressed like a corpse.
Q 23Which South Asian garment is one unstitched cloth draped from waist to shoulder?
Sari
Sari lengths vary: Maharashtra's nauvari runs to nine yards and is drawn between the legs and tucked in behind so the wearer can move freely.
Swahili: 'matunda ya kwanza' means 'first fruits', and founder Maulana Karenga added an extra 'a' to give the name seven letters, the number that also runs through the holiday's seven principles and seven candles.
Q 14France's national day on 14 July commemorates the storming of which building in 1789?
The Bastille
The Bastille, a fortress-prison already marked for demolition, held just seven inmates when a crowd stormed it on 14 July 1789: the attackers were after the arms and ammunition stored inside.
Q 15Every 5 November, Britons light bonfires and set off fireworks to mark the 1605 foiling of what?
The Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot; Guy Fawkes was caught guarding the explosives beneath the House of Lords, and Londoners lit bonfires that night to celebrate the king's survival.
Q 16Boxing Day, 26 December, coincides with which saint's feast?
Stephen
Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, has his feast on 26 December; one theory traces the Boxing Day name to church alms boxes opened for the poor on that day.
Q 17Trick-or-treating grew out of 'guising', a house-to-house Halloween custom from which two countries?
Scotland and Ireland
Scotland and Ireland: guisers in costume went door to door reciting a verse or song in exchange for food or coins, and 19th-century Irish and Scottish emigrants took their Halloween customs to North America.
Q 18The hongi, the traditional Māori greeting, is performed how?
By pressing noses together
By pressing noses together, often with foreheads touching, to share the breath of life; in Māori tradition the god Tāne breathed life into the first woman the same way.
Q 19'Namaste' comes from Sanskrit words meaning what?
I bow to you
'I bow to you' is the literal sense of the Sanskrit namas, bowing, and te, to you; during the Covid pandemic the no-contact greeting was taken up around the world in place of handshakes.
Q 20In the Thai wai greeting, how do you show greater respect?
Hands higher, head lower
Hands higher, head lower: the thumbs rise from chin level for an equal to the brow for a monk, and the head dips further; the wai also serves as thank you and sorry.
Q 24The modern Scottish kilt is essentially the bottom half of which older Highland garment?
The great kilt
The great kilt, or belted plaid, was one long cloth, half pleated round the waist and half thrown over the shoulder as a cloak; in time the two halves became separate garments.
Q 25Kente cloth, woven in strips of silk and cotton, is officially recognised as a product of which country?
Ghana
Ghana registered kente as a geographical indication in 2025, so only cloth woven in its designated communities, such as Bonwire in the Ashanti region, can be sold abroad as authentic kente.
Q 26The áo dài, a long split tunic worn over silk trousers, is the traditional dress of which country?
Vietnam
Vietnam's áo dài got its fitted modern shape in 1930s Hanoi, when the artist Cát Tường, known as Le Mur, restyled the older five-panel gown along French fashion lines.
Q 27The fez was banned in 1925 in which country, as part of a modernising 'Hat Revolution'?
Turkey
Turkey: Atatürk's Hat Law of November 1925 outlawed the fez in favour of Western brimmed hats; ironically, Sultan Mahmud II had imposed the fez on Ottoman officials in 1829 to replace the turban.
Q 28Why is standing chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice taboo across East Asia?
It resembles incense offered to the dead
It resembles incense offered to the dead; in Japan a bowl of rice with upright chopsticks is set on the funeral altar, and passing food from chopstick to chopstick is avoided for echoing a cremation rite.
Q 29Haggis, Scotland's national dish, is celebrated in a 1786 poem by whom?
Robert Burns
Robert Burns wrote 'Address to a Haggis' in 1786, and it is recited at Burns suppers every 25 January, where the haggis is served with neeps, tatties and a dram.
Q 30Poutine, fries with cheese curds and gravy, emerged in the late 1950s in which Canadian province?
Quebec
Quebec: in Warwick, Fernand Lachance said he first tossed cheese curds onto fries at a customer's request in 1957, warning it would make a 'maudite poutine', a damned mess; rival towns dispute the claim.