New Year Quiz

January is named after which Roman god of beginnings, often shown with two faces?

• Jupiter
• Janus
• Juno
• Mars

Answer: Janus. Janus looked both back to the old year and ahead to the new. June is linked to Juno and March to Mars.

Which country, whose Line Islands sit in the UTC+14 time zone, is among the first inhabited places to welcome the New Year?

• Kiribati
• Japan
• New Zealand
• Fiji

Answer: Kiribati. Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in Kiribati is 14 hours ahead of UTC, so it sees midnight before almost everywhere else on Earth.

"Auld Lang Syne", sung at midnight in many countries, comes from a poem by which writer?

• William Shakespeare
• William Wordsworth
• Charles Dickens
• Robert Burns

Answer: Robert Burns. Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote it down in 1788 from an old folk song. The title roughly means "for old times' sake".

In Scotland, New Year's Eve has its own name. What is it?

• Hogmanay
• Ceilidh
• Burns Night
• Beltane

Answer: Hogmanay. Hogmanay is famous for "first-footing", visiting friends just after midnight. Burns Night is 25 January and Beltane is a May festival.

In Spain, how many grapes do people traditionally eat at midnight on New Year's Eve?

• 7
• 10
• 12
• 21

Answer: 12. One grape for each of the 12 chimes of midnight, said to bring luck for each month of the coming year.

The famous ball drop in New York's Times Square was first held on New Year's Eve of which year?

• 1899
• 1907
• 1950
• 1969

Answer: 1907. The first ball was lowered on 31 December 1907, after a ban on fireworks. It has dropped every year since, except 1942 and 1943 during wartime blackouts.

The Julian calendar, the ancestor of the calendar most of the world uses today, was introduced in 45 BC by which Roman leader?

• Augustus
• Julius Caesar
• Nero
• Constantine

Answer: Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar brought in the Julian calendar, which kept 1 January as the start of the year. The Gregorian calendar of 1582 is a fine-tuned version of it.

The Lunar New Year that began on 17 February 2026 welcomed the Year of which animal?

• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat

Answer: Horse. 2026 is the Year of the Horse. It follows the Dragon (2024) and the Snake (2025); the Goat comes next in 2027.

On New Year's Eve, Buddhist temples in Japan ring their bells how many times?

• 12
• 365
• 1000
• 108

Answer: 108. The ritual, Joya no Kane, has 108 strokes, one for each of the 108 worldly desires in Buddhist belief, to start the year cleansed.

Gudi Padwa, when a decorated pole is raised outside homes, marks the New Year in which state?

• Maharashtra
• Punjab
• Assam
• Kerala

Answer: Maharashtra. Gudi Padwa falls in Chaitra (March or April). The same day is celebrated as Ugadi in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Pohela Boishakh is the New Year of which people?

• Tamil
• Malayali
• Bengali
• Assamese

Answer: Bengali. Pohela Boishakh, around 14 or 15 April, opens the Bengali calendar in West Bengal, Tripura and Bangladesh. Tamils celebrate Puthandu and Malayalis Vishu around the same time.

Which of these is NOT a traditional New Year festival in India?

• Ugadi
• Vaisakhi
• Puthandu
• Raksha Bandhan

Answer: Raksha Bandhan. Raksha Bandhan celebrates siblings. Ugadi, Vaisakhi and Puthandu all mark the start of a regional new year in spring.

Rosh Hashanah is the New Year of which faith?

• Islam
• Judaism
• Sikhism
• Zoroastrianism

Answer: Judaism. Rosh Hashanah means "head of the year" in Hebrew. It falls in September or October and is marked by blowing the shofar, a ram's-horn trumpet.

The Islamic New Year begins on the first day of which month?

• Ramadan
• Shawwal
• Muharram
• Dhu al-Hijjah

Answer: Muharram. Muharram is the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar, so the Islamic New Year moves about 11 days earlier each year.

Which city's midnight fireworks light up its Harbour Bridge and Opera House every New Year's Eve?

• Sydney
• Auckland
• Singapore
• Dubai

Answer: Sydney. Sydney's harbour show is one of the first big New Year fireworks displays each year, seen by over a million people around the harbour.