Halloween Trivia Questions

Halloween history trivia

Samhain, turnip lanterns, guising and the classic spooky stories.

1. 1.Which ancient Celtic festival is Halloween linked to?Answer: Samhain. Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the start of the dark half of the year.
2. 2.The word "Halloween" is a short form of which phrase?Answer: All Hallows' Eve. "Hallow" is an old word for a saint, and "e'en" is short for evening.
3. 3.On what date is Halloween celebrated?Answer: October 31. It is the evening before All Hallows' Day, which falls on November 1.
4. 4.Before pumpkins, which vegetable did people in Scotland carve into lanterns at Halloween?Answer: Turnips. In North America, people found that pumpkins were bigger and much easier to carve.
5. 5.In Scotland, what is the old name for going door to door in costume on Halloween?Answer: Guising. The word comes from "disguise." Guisers often told a joke or sang a song to earn their treat.
6. 6.In an old Irish folk tale, which trickster wanders the night carrying a lantern made from a turnip?Answer: Stingy Jack. His story is one explanation for the name jack-o'-lantern.
7. 7.Which Halloween party game asks you to grab floating apples using only your teeth?Answer: Bobbing for apples. The game goes back to old harvest festivals in Britain and Ireland.
8. 8.Which famous story features the Headless Horseman?Answer: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Washington Irving published it in 1820.
9. 9.Who wrote the spooky poem "The Raven"?Answer: Edgar Allan Poe. The poem was published in 1845, and its raven says only one word: "Nevermore."
10. 10.Who wrote the novel Frankenstein?Answer: Mary Shelley. She began the story at 18, after friends challenged each other to write ghost stories.
11. 11.In the original novel, who is named Frankenstein?Answer: The scientist. Victor Frankenstein is the scientist. The creature he builds never gets a name.
12. 12.Who wrote the novel Dracula?Answer: Bram Stoker. Dracula was published in 1897.
13. 13.In which country is the region of Transylvania?Answer: Romania. Transylvania is a real region, known for its mountains, forests and old castles.
14. 14.In old England, what treat was given to children who went door to door singing in early November?Answer: Soul cakes. Some historians see this custom, called souling, as one of the roots of trick-or-treating.

Pumpkin trivia questions

Where pumpkins come from and what is inside them.

1. 15.Pumpkins belong to the same plant family as cucumbers and melons. What is it called?Answer: The gourd family. Zucchini and other squashes are in the gourd family too.
2. 16.On which continent did pumpkins first grow?Answer: North America. People in what is now Mexico were growing squash thousands of years ago.
3. 17.What is a carved pumpkin with a light inside called?Answer: A jack-o'-lantern. Many people now use battery candles inside, which are safer than real flames.
4. 18.What are hulled pumpkin seeds often called, from a Mexican Spanish word?Answer: Pepitas. Pepita means "little seed."
5. 19.What color are pumpkin flowers?Answer: Yellow. The flowers are edible. In Mexico, squash blossoms are a favorite filling for quesadillas.
6. 20.About how much of a pumpkin is water?Answer: About 90 percent. That is close to a watermelon, which is about 92 percent water.
7. 21.In the fairy tale, what does Cinderella's fairy godmother turn into a coach?Answer: A pumpkin. In the same story, mice are turned into horses to pull the coach.
8. 22.The word "pumpkin" goes back to a Greek word meaning what?Answer: Large melon. The Greek "pepon" became "pompon" in French and, later, "pumpkin" in English.
9. 23.Which natural pigment gives pumpkins and carrots their orange color?Answer: Beta-carotene. Your body turns beta-carotene into vitamin A.
10. 24.What do bees carry from flower to flower so pumpkins can grow?Answer: Pollen. Squash bees are wild bees that specialize in pumpkin and squash flowers.
11. 25.In which season are most pumpkins harvested?Answer: Fall. Most pumpkins are planted in late spring or early summer.
12. 26.What is the Spanish word for pumpkin or squash?Answer: Calabaza. Calabaza en tacha, pumpkin cooked in a sweet brown sugar syrup, is a fall treat in Mexico.
13. 27.What is the full moon closest to the start of fall called?Answer: The harvest moon. For several nights in a row it rises soon after sunset, which once gave farmers extra light.
14. 28.What are the curly little stems that help a pumpkin vine hold on as it spreads?Answer: Tendrils. Tendrils wrap around anything they touch, like grass, fences or other vines.

Halloween candy trivia

How the sweets in the treat bag are made.

1. 29.What are the three classic colors of candy corn?Answer: Yellow, orange and white. Candy corn has been made since the 1880s.
2. 30.Which treat is made by spinning melted sugar into thin threads?Answer: Cotton candy. A dentist helped invent the cotton candy machine in 1897.
3. 31.Which candy is pulled and stretched over and over to make it soft and chewy?Answer: Taffy. Pulling taffy adds tiny air bubbles that make it lighter.
4. 32.Which crunchy candy is made by pouring hot, golden sugar syrup over nuts and letting it harden?Answer: Brittle. Peanuts, almonds and pecans are all used to make brittle.
5. 33.What do you get when you heat sugar slowly until it melts and turns golden brown?Answer: Caramel. The heat breaks the sugar down into many new flavor molecules.
6. 34.Marshmallows are named after a plant that grows where?Answer: In marshes. Sap from the root of the marsh mallow plant was once used to make the treat.
7. 35.Black licorice candy tastes a lot like which spice?Answer: Anise. Many black licorice candies are flavored with both licorice root and anise.
8. 36.What is the shiny red coating on a classic candy apple made of?Answer: Hard sugar candy. Caramel apples are a different treat, with a soft caramel coating instead.
9. 37.Which acid, found in lemons and limes, gives many sour candies their tang?Answer: Citric acid. Citric acid is also what makes lemonade taste so tart.
10. 38.Which soft candy is made by cooking sugar, butter and milk, then stirring it hard as it cools?Answer: Fudge. Stirring as it cools makes tiny sugar crystals, which keep fudge smooth.
11. 39.Which kitchen ingredient makes the bubbles in honeycomb candy?Answer: Baking soda. Baking soda gives off carbon dioxide gas when it hits the hot sugar.
12. 40.What is rock candy made of?Answer: Sugar crystals. You can grow rock candy at home by letting sugar water sit around a string for about a week.
13. 41.What is it called when chocolate gets a dusty, whitish coating?Answer: Bloom. It happens when cocoa butter or sugar rises to the surface. The chocolate is still safe to eat.
14. 42.Which ingredient usually gives gummy candies their chewy bounce?Answer: Gelatin. Some gummies use pectin, which comes from fruit, instead.

Halloween animal trivia: bats, spiders, owls and black cats

The night creatures, and the myths about them.

1. 43.Which big bats with fox-like faces are among the largest bats in the world?Answer: Flying foxes. Flying foxes eat fruit and flower nectar, and some have wings more than 1.5 meters across.
2. 44.What do many bats use to find insects in the dark by bouncing sounds off them?Answer: Echolocation. Despite the saying "blind as a bat," no bat is blind, and many see quite well.
3. 45.What is a large group of bats living together called?Answer: A colony. Bracken Cave in Texas is home to millions of bats every summer.
4. 46.How do bats usually rest?Answer: Hanging upside down. Special tendons lock their toes in place, so hanging takes almost no effort.
5. 47.What is a baby bat called?Answer: A pup. Most bat mothers have just one pup a year.
6. 48.Vampire bats live in the wild in which part of the world?Answer: Latin America. Vampire bats share food with roost mates who missed a meal.
7. 49.Spiders are not insects. Which group of animals do they belong to?Answer: Arachnids. Scorpions, ticks and mites are arachnids too.
8. 50.How many eyes do most spiders have?Answer: Eight. Even with all those eyes, many spiders see poorly and sense vibrations instead.
9. 51.What do spiders use to build their webs?Answer: Silk. Some spider silk is stronger than steel of the same weight.
10. 52.About how far can an owl turn its head?Answer: 270 degrees. Owls cannot turn their heads all the way around, but 270 degrees lets them look over their backs.
11. 53.What lets owls fly almost silently?Answer: Soft, fringed feathers. The soft edges of their wing feathers break up the air and muffle the sound.
12. 54.Which owl has a pale, heart-shaped face?Answer: The barn owl. Its face works like a dish, guiding sounds to its ears.
13. 55.Which animal is part of an old superstition about bad luck if it crosses your path?Answer: A black cat. It is only a superstition. In parts of Britain, a black cat is even thought to bring good luck.
14. 56.What is the shiny layer at the back of a cat's eye that makes its eyes shine in the dark called?Answer: Tapetum lucidum. It bounces light back through the eye, helping cats see when it is dim.

Halloween costume and tradition trivia from around the world

Classic costumes, plus Día de Muertos and other fall celebrations.

1. 57.On which two days is Día de Muertos celebrated in Mexico?Answer: November 1 and 2. Families build ofrendas, altars with photos, candles and favorite foods, to remember loved ones who have passed away.
2. 58.What are the decorated sugar skulls made for Día de Muertos called in Spanish?Answer: Calaveras. Calavera means skull in Spanish.
3. 59.Which bright orange flower decorates Día de Muertos altars?Answer: The marigold. In Mexico it is called cempasúchil.
4. 60.Which sweet bread is baked in Mexico for Día de Muertos?Answer: Pan de muerto. It is often topped with dough shaped like little bones and dusted with sugar.
5. 61.What is the Mexican folk art of cutting colorful designs into tissue paper called?Answer: Papel picado. Papel picado banners hang for Día de Muertos and many other celebrations.
6. 62.Which elegant skeleton lady in a fancy hat is a famous symbol of Día de Muertos?Answer: La Catrina. The artist José Guadalupe Posada first drew her in the early 1900s.
7. 63.In Guatemala, what giant colorful things are flown in some towns on November 1?Answer: Kites. The biggest kites are many meters across and take months to make.
8. 64.Which costume can you make by cutting two eye holes in an old white sheet?Answer: A ghost. Make the eye holes big enough to see where you are walking.
9. 65.Which costume is made by wrapping yourself in strips of white cloth?Answer: A mummy. Ancient Egyptians wrapped mummies in long strips of linen.
10. 66.Which creature from folklore turns into a wolf under a full moon?Answer: A werewolf. The "were" in werewolf comes from an Old English word for man.
11. 67.Which classic costume comes with a pointed hat, a cape and a broom?Answer: A witch. A broom made from a bundle of twigs is called a besom.
12. 68.Which costume uses straw, old clothes and a floppy hat?Answer: A scarecrow. Farmers have used scarecrows to keep birds away from their crops for centuries.
13. 69.Which costume usually has a long cape with a tall, stiff collar?Answer: A vampire. The high collar became popular through stage plays of Dracula in the 1920s.
14. 70.In which country do many historians say Halloween has its oldest roots?Answer: Ireland. Samhain is still the Irish word for the month of November.

How to play Halloween trivia at a party

Split into teams and play this list with the player at the top of the page. Each team gets its question in turn, someone reads it out loud, and the phone shows the answer and a short fact. For team names and the full setup, open the Trivia game, where the Halloween deck is promoted while the season is on.

Every question works with or without the four options. Multiple choice is great for a mixed crowd. No options is a better test for teens and adults.

• Name the teams after costumes in the room: Team Witch against Team Mummy.
• Play one round per group. Candy and Spooky animals are the easiest to start with.
• Give a bonus point to any team that answers while still wearing a full costume.
• Dim the lights and let the reader use a flashlight for the History & legends round.

Halloween trivia for kids and classrooms

Nothing here is gory or frightening. The questions are about pumpkins, candy, bats and old customs, so they work for a class party as well as a teen sleepover. Younger kids do best with multiple choice turned on and a grown-up reading.

In a classroom, put the page on the projector and play class against class, or rows against rows. The facts after each answer double as a short lesson on where Halloween came from and how families in Mexico celebrate Día de Muertos. Let older kids take turns as the reader, so everyone stays involved.

For a younger crowd, mix in a few rounds from the trivia questions for kids.

More Halloween fun

Trivia makes a calm start to a party. When the group is ready to move, switch to the Halloween games, with charades, guessing games and more. For a costume parade or a candy prize, the printables page has Halloween bingo cards ready to print.

Questions