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Easter Trivia Questions
Forty-two questions on Easter, from how the date is calculated to what pysanky are. Play the round, then read every answer below.
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Easter is the most interesting holiday to write trivia about because almost nothing about it is simple. The date moves, and the rule that moves it involves a moon the church calculates rather than observes. The rabbit is not in any gospel and arrives instead with German settlers. Eggs, lilies, lamb and ham all sit somewhere between religious symbol and seasonal habit. This round covers the church calendar from Ash Wednesday through Holy Week to Pentecost, the customs that differ from country to country, and the foods that go with the day. The easy band is the shape of the holiday, the medium band is the calendar and the traditions, and the hard band goes into the computus, the vocabulary and the customs most people have never met.
Origins and Holy Week: easter trivia questions
Easter commemorates which event?
Answer: The resurrection of Jesus EasyChristmas marks the birth; Easter marks the resurrection.
What is the Friday before Easter called?
Answer: Good Friday EasyIt marks the crucifixion and is a solemn rather than festive day.
Which forty-day period of fasting leads up to Easter?
Answer: Lent EasyAdvent is the equivalent preparation period before Christmas.
What is the Sunday before Easter called?
Answer: Palm Sunday EasyIt recalls the entry into Jerusalem, when palm branches were laid down.
Which day marks the beginning of Lent?
Answer: Ash Wednesday EasyAshes are traditionally marked on the forehead that day.
What is the week leading up to Easter called?
Answer: Holy Week MediumIt begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday.
What is the Thursday before Easter known as?
Answer: Maundy Thursday MediumIt commemorates the Last Supper and the washing of feet.
What is the traditional Easter greeting used in many churches?
Answer: Christ is risen MediumThe customary response is that he is risen indeed.
Which English monk linked the word Easter to a goddess named Eostre?
Answer: The Venerable Bede HardHe wrote about it in the eighth century, and it is the only early source for the claim.
What is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday called?
Answer: Holy Saturday HardMany churches hold an evening vigil service that night.
The fifty-day season that begins at Easter ends with which feast?
Answer: Pentecost HardAscension falls within the season, forty days after Easter.
Quadragesima is the Latin name for which season?
Answer: Lent HardIt simply means fortieth, after the length of the fast.
What are the traditional Christian practices of Lent?
Answer: Prayer, fasting and almsgiving HardThe three are usually named together as the pillars of the season.
The English word Easter is unusual because most European languages use a name derived from which word?
Answer: Pascha, from the Hebrew for Passover HardIt gives Pasqua in Italian, Paques in French and Pascua in Spanish.
Dating and the calendar: easter trivia questions
On which day of the week does Easter always fall?
Answer: Sunday EasySunday was already the Christian day of worship for that reason.
In which months can Easter fall?
Answer: March or April EasyThe date moves each year because it is tied to the moon.
How is the date of Easter calculated?
Answer: The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21 MediumThe full moon used is a calculated church moon, not the astronomical one.
Between which two dates can Easter fall in the Gregorian calendar?
Answer: March 22 and April 25 MediumThe extremes are rare; most Easters cluster in early April.
Which church council in 325 settled the method for dating Easter?
Answer: The Council of Nicaea MediumIt ruled that Easter should not simply follow the Jewish calendar date.
Orthodox churches usually calculate Easter using which calendar?
Answer: The Julian calendar MediumThat is why Orthodox Easter often falls weeks after the Western date.
Not counting Sundays, how many days does Lent last?
Answer: Forty MediumThe number echoes the forty days spent in the wilderness.
What is the technical name for the calculation of the date of Easter?
Answer: Computus HardMedieval monasteries devoted enormous effort to getting it right.
The Paschal full moon used to set the date is best described as what?
Answer: An ecclesiastical approximation rather than the astronomical moon HardThat is why Easter occasionally differs from what the sky would suggest.
Ascension Day falls how long after Easter Sunday?
Answer: Forty days HardIt always lands on a Thursday as a result.
Eggs, rabbits and symbols: easter trivia questions
Which animal is said to bring eggs to children at Easter?
Answer: A rabbit or hare EasyThe tradition arrived in America with German settlers.
Easter eggs are most commonly given today in which form?
Answer: Chocolate EasyHollow molded chocolate eggs became widespread in the nineteenth century.
Which flower is most associated with Easter decoration?
Answer: The lily EasyWhite lilies are used as a symbol of purity and new life.
Which baby animal, besides the rabbit, is a common Easter symbol?
Answer: The lamb EasyThe lamb carries religious meaning as well as a springtime one.
What is the traditional Easter activity of searching the garden for hidden treats called?
Answer: An egg hunt EasyEgg rolling is a separate game played on a slope.
Which German-speaking settlers brought the egg-laying hare tradition to America?
Answer: The Pennsylvania Dutch MediumTheir Osterhase became the Easter Bunny in English.
The jeweled Faberge eggs were made as Easter gifts for which family?
Answer: The Russian imperial family HardThe first was commissioned in 1885 and the series ran until the revolution.
Food and customs: easter trivia questions
An annual Easter Egg Roll is held on the lawn of which building?
Answer: The White House EasyChildren push eggs across the grass with long-handled spoons.
Marshmallow candies shaped like chicks are sold under which brand name?
Answer: Peeps EasyThey were originally made by hand before being mass produced in the 1950s.
Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins, is also known as what?
Answer: Pancake Day MediumHouseholds used up eggs, butter and fat before the fast.
Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on which day?
Answer: Good Friday MediumThe cross on top is why they belong to that day.
Which meat is the most traditional centerpiece of an American Easter dinner?
Answer: Ham MediumPork cured over the winter was ready to eat by spring.
Simnel cake, topped with marzipan balls, is an Easter tradition in which country?
Answer: The United Kingdom HardThe balls are usually eleven, standing for the apostles minus Judas.
Around the world: easter trivia questions
Pysanky are elaborately decorated Easter eggs from which country?
Answer: Ukraine MediumThey are made with a wax-resist method and dyed in layers.
Which country's Easter tradition involves children dressing as small witches and going door to door?
Answer: Sweden MediumThey swap decorated willow twigs for candy.
In which country do children traditionally hear that church bells, not a rabbit, bring the Easter eggs?
Answer: France HardThe bells are said to fall silent from Thursday and return from Rome on Sunday.
In Poland, Easter Monday is marked by a custom involving what?
Answer: Sprinkling or dousing people with water HardIt is known there as Smigus-dyngus, or Wet Monday.
Which animal has been promoted in Australia as a native alternative to the Easter Bunny?
Answer: The bilby HardRabbits are a destructive introduced pest there, which is the point of the campaign.
Answer key
- The resurrection of Jesus
- Sunday
- A rabbit or hare
- Good Friday
- Lent
- Chocolate
- Palm Sunday
- March or April
- The lily
- Ash Wednesday
- The White House
- The lamb
- Peeps
- An egg hunt
- The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21
- March 22 and April 25
- The Council of Nicaea
- Holy Week
- Maundy Thursday
- The Julian calendar
- Pancake Day
- Good Friday
- Ham
- Ukraine
- Christ is risen
- The Pennsylvania Dutch
- Forty
- Sweden
- Computus
- The Venerable Bede
- An ecclesiastical approximation rather than the astronomical moon
- Holy Saturday
- Pentecost
- France
- The United Kingdom
- The Russian imperial family
- Sprinkling or dousing people with water
- Forty days
- Lent
- The bilby
- Prayer, fasting and almsgiving
- Pascha, from the Hebrew for Passover
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full easter list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
Tiebreaker questions
Closest guess wins. Read one out when two tables finish level.
In what year was the Council of Nicaea held?
Answer: 325 It settled that Easter would be kept on a Sunday rather than following the Jewish calendar date.
Counting Easter Sunday itself as the first day, on which day does Pentecost fall?
Answer: 50 th day The name comes from the Greek for fiftieth.
What is the earliest date in March on which Easter can fall in the Gregorian calendar?
Answer: 22 March The latest possible date is 25 April.
Common mistakes in easter trivia
- Easter is always on the first Sunday after the full moon following the equinox, using the real moon.
The calculation uses an ecclesiastical moon and a fixed equinox date of 21 March. The church tables can differ from the astronomical moon by a day or two.
- Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on a different day because they use a different rule.
They use the same rule but reckon it on the Julian calendar. When the dates line up, both traditions keep Easter on the same Sunday.
- Easter is named after a Babylonian goddess called Ishtar.
There is no linguistic link. The English name is usually traced to a spring month name recorded by Bede, and most European languages use a word derived from Pascha instead.
- Lent lasts forty days, so it covers every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
Sundays are not counted as fast days. From Ash Wednesday to Easter is forty-six days, of which forty are fasting days.
- Chocolate eggs are an ancient Easter tradition.
Decorated real eggs are old, but moulded chocolate eggs date from nineteenth-century European confectioners once solid chocolate could be cast.
Running this round at a quiz night
Open with the symbols and the eggs, which everyone can answer, then move into Holy Week and the calendar once the table is confident. Keep the dating questions spread out; three in a row feels like arithmetic homework. The guaranteed argument is why Orthodox Easter often falls on a different Sunday, so word those answers around the calendar used rather than saying one church is right. Say Gregorian or Julian explicitly. Regional customs also vary within a country, so accept the answer on the sheet and mention that others exist. For a tiebreaker use a fixed church date, such as the year of the Council of Nicaea.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Easter move around the calendar?
It is set by a lunar rule rather than a fixed date: the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21. Because the lunar cycle does not line up neatly with the solar year, the date drifts within a five-week window each year.
Why is Orthodox Easter often on a different Sunday?
Most Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar for the calculation, which now runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian one. The two dates sometimes coincide, but more often the Orthodox date falls one to five weeks later.
Where did the Easter Bunny actually come from?
The egg-laying hare appears in German folklore and was carried to America by Pennsylvania Dutch settlers in the eighteenth century. It has no basis in the Easter story itself, and other countries assign the job to bells, foxes or cuckoos.
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