Halloween Quiz

On which date is Halloween celebrated?

• 31 October
• 1 November
• 30 October
• 2 November

Answer: 31 October. Halloween is the evening of 31 October, the night before All Saints' Day.

The word "Halloween" is a shortened form of which phrase?

• Hollow Evening
• All Hallows' Eve
• Hallowed Wine
• Hall of Ween

Answer: All Hallows' Eve. "Hallow" is an old word for a saint, so All Hallows' Eve is the eve of All Saints' Day, contracted over time to Halloween.

Halloween traces many of its customs back to which ancient Celtic festival?

• Beltane
• Imbolc
• Samhain
• Lughnasa

Answer: Samhain. Samhain marked the end of harvest and the start of winter, when the boundary with the spirit world was believed to be thin.

In Ireland and Scotland, before pumpkins were used, jack-o'-lanterns were traditionally carved from what?

• Apples
• Melons
• Cabbages
• Turnips

Answer: Turnips. People hollowed out turnips and other root vegetables. Irish and Scottish emigrants switched to the larger, softer pumpkin in North America.

Which Christian feast day falls on 1 November, the day after Halloween?

• All Saints' Day
• Ash Wednesday
• Epiphany
• Candlemas

Answer: All Saints' Day. All Saints' Day honours all saints. It is followed on 2 November by All Souls' Day.

Who wrote the 1818 novel "Frankenstein"?

• Bram Stoker
• Mary Shelley
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Robert Louis Stevenson

Answer: Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley began the story at 18 during a ghost-story contest near Lake Geneva in 1816. Frankenstein is the scientist, not the creature.

In Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Count Dracula's castle is in which region?

• Bavaria
• Transylvania
• Tuscany
• Silesia

Answer: Transylvania. Stoker placed the castle in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, now part of Romania.

Which famous escape artist died on Halloween in 1926?

• David Copperfield
• Harry Blackstone
• Harry Houdini
• Howard Thurston

Answer: Harry Houdini. Harry Houdini died in Detroit on 31 October 1926 from peritonitis after a burst appendix. Fans still hold Halloween seances in his name.

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated on 1 and 2 November with altars and marigolds, is most closely linked with which country?

• Spain
• Brazil
• Peru
• Mexico

Answer: Mexico. It is a major Mexican celebration honouring departed family members, and UNESCO lists it as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Which of these is NOT a traditional Halloween custom?

• Bobbing for apples
• Trick-or-treating
• Egg rolling
• Carving jack-o'-lanterns

Answer: Egg rolling. Egg rolling is an Easter tradition. Apple bobbing, trick-or-treating and lantern carving all belong to Halloween.

"Guising", children going door to door in costume and performing for treats, is the traditional Halloween custom of which country?

• Scotland
• France
• Italy
• Germany

Answer: Scotland. Scottish (and Irish) children went guising in disguise long before the American phrase trick-or-treat took hold.

In John Carpenter's 1978 horror film "Halloween", what is the name of the masked killer?

• Freddy Krueger
• Jason Voorhees
• Norman Bates
• Michael Myers

Answer: Michael Myers. Michael Myers escapes a mental hospital and returns to Haddonfield, Illinois. Freddy and Jason belong to other horror series.

Botanically speaking, what is a pumpkin?

• A fruit
• A root
• A tuber
• A leaf stalk

Answer: A fruit. A pumpkin grows from a flower and holds the plant's seeds, so botanists class it as a fruit, a type of berry called a pepo.

Who wrote "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), the tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman?

• Edgar Allan Poe
• Washington Irving
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Mark Twain

Answer: Washington Irving. Washington Irving set the story in a Dutch settlement in New York's Hudson Valley.

Which Edgar Allan Poe poem features a midnight visitor that answers every question with "Nevermore"?

• Annabel Lee
• The Bells
• The Raven
• Ulalume

Answer: The Raven. "The Raven" was published in 1845 and made Poe famous. The talking bird perches above the narrator's door.