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Halloween Trivia Questions
Where the holiday actually comes from, why the pumpkin replaced the turnip, and which director made which classic. Play the round, then read every question and answer below.
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Halloween trivia works because the holiday is much older and much stranger than the shop displays suggest. Behind the plastic skeletons sits Samhain, a Celtic marker for the end of the harvest, layered over with All Saints' Day, Irish emigration, American commerce and a century of cinema. A good round should touch all of those rather than only the sweets.
This set is built in three steps. The easy fourteen cover what everyone knows: the date, the colours, the costumes, the carved pumpkin. The medium fourteen deal with origins and the literature that shaped the imagery, from Samhain and Salem to Stoker and Shelley. The hard fourteen turn to horror cinema and the deeper folklore, including Stingy Jack, barmbrack and Pomona.
Origins and Samhain: halloween trivia questions
Halloween is a shortened form of which older name?
Answer: All Hallows' Eve EasyHallow is an old word for a saint or holy person.
Halloween's roots are traced to which ancient festival?
Answer: Samhain MediumIt marked the turn from the light half of the year to the dark half.
Samhain was a festival of which ancient peoples?
Answer: The Celts MediumIt was kept in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in particular.
Samhain marked the end of which season?
Answer: The harvest MediumCattle were brought in from summer pasture and stores were counted.
All Saints' Day falls on which date?
Answer: November 1 MediumHalloween is its eve, and All Souls' Day follows on 2 November.
Which country's emigrants are most credited with carrying Halloween customs to North America?
Answer: Ireland MediumNineteenth-century Irish and Scottish migration spread the traditions widely.
What does the word 'hallow' mean in All Hallows' Eve?
Answer: A saint or holy person MediumThe same root survives in the phrase hallowed ground.
Symbols and superstitions: halloween trivia questions
Which colour pairing is traditionally used for Halloween decoration?
Answer: Orange and black EasyOrange stands for the harvest and black for the dark half of the year.
Which animal is most associated with witches in folklore?
Answer: Black cat EasySuperstition cast it as a witch's companion, or the witch herself in disguise.
Which object is a witch usually shown flying on?
Answer: Broomstick EasyThe broom was an everyday household item, which made the image easy to recognise.
What is a group of witches called?
Answer: A coven MediumThe number thirteen attached to it through later fiction, not older record.
Which superstition says a mirror brings seven years of bad luck?
Answer: Breaking one MediumThe seven-year figure was borrowed from a Roman idea about the lifespan of the soul.
Which insect-like creature is the target of arachnophobia, a fear used constantly in Halloween decoration?
Answer: Spiders MediumCobwebs became shorthand for an abandoned, haunted room.
What is the fear of the number thirteen called?
Answer: Triskaidekaphobia HardSome buildings still skip the thirteenth floor because of it.
Costumes and customs: halloween trivia questions
On which date is Halloween celebrated?
Answer: October 31 EasyIt falls on the eve of All Saints' Day, which is why it is called All Hallows' Eve.
What is a carved and lit pumpkin called?
Answer: Jack-o'-lantern EasyThe name comes from an Irish tale about a man doomed to wander with a lantern.
Children going door to door on Halloween say which phrase?
Answer: Trick or treat EasyThe bargain is playful: hand over sweets and no prank follows.
Which mythical figure is said to drink blood and turn into a bat?
Answer: Vampire EasyThe bat detail comes from nineteenth-century fiction rather than older folklore.
Which creature of legend transforms into a wolf under a full moon?
Answer: Werewolf EasyStories of people turning into wolves are far older than the full-moon rule.
What is an attraction designed to frighten visitors as they walk through it called?
Answer: A haunted house EasyThey grew out of nineteenth-century ghost shows and fairground illusions.
Which wrapped and preserved figure from ancient Egypt became a Halloween costume staple?
Answer: The mummy EasyCostume shops simplified it to bandages long ago.
Which vegetable lantern eventually became the pumpkin in North America?
Answer: Turnip EasyPumpkins were larger, softer and easier to carve, so they replaced the turnip.
Horror films: halloween trivia questions
Who directed the 1978 film Halloween?
Answer: John Carpenter HardHe also wrote the film's synthesiser theme.
In which year was Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho released?
Answer: 1960 HardIt was shot in black and white on a tight budget by a television crew.
Who directed The Exorcist, released in 1973?
Answer: William Friedkin HardIt was adapted from a novel by William Peter Blatty.
Which 1922 German film was an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula?
Answer: Nosferatu HardA court ordered the prints destroyed, but copies survived.
Who directed the 1980 film The Shining?
Answer: Stanley Kubrick HardStephen King, who wrote the novel, famously disliked the adaptation.
Which 1968 George A. Romero film established the modern zombie?
Answer: Night of the Living Dead HardIt fell into the public domain because of a distribution error.
Which 1984 film introduced the character Freddy Krueger?
Answer: A Nightmare on Elm Street HardIt was directed by Wes Craven for New Line Cinema.
Who directed the 1963 film The Birds?
Answer: Alfred Hitchcock HardIt was loosely based on a Daphne du Maurier short story.
Which 1999 film popularised the found-footage horror format?
Answer: The Blair Witch Project HardIts marketing campaign leaned heavily on the idea that the footage was real.
Which 1993 stop-motion film was directed by Henry Selick?
Answer: The Nightmare Before Christmas HardTim Burton wrote and produced it, which is why it is often misattributed to him.
Books and legends: halloween trivia questions
Which Shakespeare play opens with three witches on a heath?
Answer: Macbeth MediumTheir prophecy sets the whole plot in motion.
Which 1897 novel by Bram Stoker fixed the modern vampire in popular culture?
Answer: Dracula MediumIt is written as a collection of letters, diaries and cuttings.
Who wrote the 1818 novel Frankenstein?
Answer: Mary Shelley MediumShe began it as a ghost story written during a wet summer holiday.
Who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?
Answer: Washington Irving MediumThe Headless Horseman comes from that 1820 story.
Which Massachusetts town is known for its 1692 witch trials?
Answer: Salem MediumNineteen people were hanged after accusations spread through the community.
Food and folklore: halloween trivia questions
Which fruit do people traditionally try to catch with their teeth in a tub of water?
Answer: Apples EasyApple bobbing was once treated as a way of telling fortunes.
What is the sweet shaped like a tri-coloured kernel called?
Answer: Candy corn EasyIts three bands were meant to imitate a kernel of corn.
Which Roman goddess of fruit trees is often linked to apple traditions at Halloween?
Answer: Pomona HardRoman harvest customs are thought to have blended with Samhain in Britain.
What is the traditional Irish Halloween fruit loaf containing hidden charms called?
Answer: Barmbrack HardFinding the ring in your slice was said to predict marriage.
In Irish folklore, who is the man said to have tricked the devil and given his name to the lantern?
Answer: Stingy Jack HardRefused entry to both heaven and hell, he was left roaming with a burning coal.
Answer key
- October 31
- Jack-o'-lantern
- Trick or treat
- Orange and black
- Black cat
- Vampire
- Werewolf
- All Hallows' Eve
- Apples
- Candy corn
- Broomstick
- A haunted house
- The mummy
- Turnip
- Samhain
- The Celts
- The harvest
- November 1
- Ireland
- A coven
- Macbeth
- Dracula
- Mary Shelley
- Washington Irving
- Salem
- A saint or holy person
- Breaking one
- Spiders
- John Carpenter
- 1960
- William Friedkin
- Nosferatu
- Stanley Kubrick
- Night of the Living Dead
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Alfred Hitchcock
- The Blair Witch Project
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Triskaidekaphobia
- Pomona
- Barmbrack
- Stingy Jack
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 halloween 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 Bram Stoker's novel Dracula published?
Answer: 1897 It set the template for the modern vampire in popular culture.
In what year was Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho released?
Answer: 1960 It is often treated as the hinge between gothic horror and the modern thriller.
In what year did the Salem witch trials begin?
Answer: 1692 The trials ran through that year and into the next in colonial Massachusetts.
Common mistakes in halloween trivia
- Halloween is an American invention.
Its customs came to North America with Irish and Scottish emigrants and are traced back to the festival of Samhain. America shaped the modern commercial version rather than inventing the holiday.
- The first jack-o'-lanterns were carved from pumpkins.
Turnips and other root vegetables were carved in Ireland and Scotland. Pumpkins were adopted in North America because they were larger and easier to hollow out.
- The Salem witch trials ended with women burned at the stake.
Those executed at Salem were hanged, and one man was pressed to death. Burning was not used there.
- Black cats have always been treated as unlucky everywhere.
The superstition is regional. In parts of Britain and Japan a black cat crossing your path is considered good luck.
- Samhain was the name of a Celtic god of the dead.
Samhain is the name of the festival marking the end of harvest, not a deity. The idea of a god by that name comes from later writing.
Running this round at a quiz night
Halloween plays best in a dim room with a fast pace. Alternate the easy customs questions with a horror film and a superstition, and hold the origins questions for the middle, where a round usually sags. The film theme is the one that divides a room by age, so spread those titles out instead of running ten in a row. The dispute you will get is over origins: people insist Halloween is either purely Celtic or purely American. Word answers as the festival that Halloween is traced to rather than the festival it is, and name the country a custom belongs to. For the tiebreaker use the year Dracula was published.
Frequently asked questions
Did Halloween really begin with Samhain?
Samhain is the festival historians trace it back to: a Celtic marker for the end of the harvest and the start of winter. Christian All Saints' and All Souls' observances were later placed alongside it, and the modern holiday grew from that mixture plus American additions.
Why were turnips carved before pumpkins?
Turnips and other root vegetables were what was available in Ireland and Scotland, and hollowed lanterns were carried to ward off wandering spirits. Pumpkins are native to the Americas, and settlers found them far bigger and easier to carve.
Is this round suitable for children?
The easy and medium bands are, since they deal with customs, history and famous books. The hard band assumes some knowledge of adult horror films, so it is better kept for a grown-up party.
Not in a quiz mood?
The question games are a different kind of round: no right answers, just prompts you read out and argue about. Would You RatherNever Have I EverTruth or DareThis or That