Trivia Questions About Halloween With Answers: 15 Sourced Ones

Good trivia depends on answers you can defend. Every question below has one clear answer. A dated page backs each one, from the Library of Congress, a museum, a university or a trade association. Where scholars disagree, the question says so, and where a source did not back a fun fact, the fact is left out.

Trivia questions about Halloween with answers, in three rounds

Each round has five questions. Read the question aloud, give players a few seconds, then read the answer, which follows each question, and the source. Round 1 suits ages 5 and up. Round 2 suits ages 8 and up. Round 3 is for halloween trivia questions for tweens and grown-ups.

Round 1: easy, ages 5 and up

1. What was Halloween called in its old name, All Hallows' ____? Eve. The Library of Congress says the evening before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween.

2. What were the first jack-o'-lanterns carved from in Ireland? Turnips. The same Library of Congress page says the tradition of carving jack-o'-lanterns began in Ireland with turnips, not pumpkins.

3. Name one other vegetable people carved faces into besides turnips. Potatoes, radishes or beets. Smithsonian Magazine says people in the British Isles carved faces into turnips, and in some cases potatoes, radishes and beets.

4. What bigger, easier-to-carve crop did Irish immigrants find in North America? The pumpkin, a winter squash. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History says immigrants found a crop much larger and easier to carve than their root vegetables at home.

5. In which decade, according to legend, was candy corn invented? The 1880s. The National Confectioners Association says that according to legend, a Wunderlee Candy Company employee named George Renninger invented it then. Note the word "legend": say it when you read the answer.

Round 2: medium, ages 8 and up

6. Which ancient Celtic festival is the best-known ancestor of Halloween? Samhain, said "SAH-win." The Library of Congress calls it an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival, with bonfires and costumes to ward off ghosts.

7. Which pope, in the eighth century, designated November 1 as a time to honor saints? Pope Gregory III, per the Library of Congress. All Saints Day then took on some of the traditions of Samhain.

8. What are November 1 and November 2 called? All Saints' Day (also All Hallows' Day) and All Souls' Day. The Library of Congress research guide places All Saints or All Hallows on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2.

9. What is the three-day Catholic celebration called that includes Halloween? Allhallowtide. Northeastern University says it spans All Hallows' Eve on October 31, All Hallows' Day on November 1 and All Souls' Day on November 2.

10. What is the name of the trickster in the Irish folktale behind the jack-o'-lantern? Stingy Jack, who the Smithsonian says tricked the devil and was left to roam the earth for eternity.

Round 3: hard, tweens and grown-ups

11. In which century did Halloween reach America with Irish immigrants? The 19th century. A UCLA history of Halloween says there was no Halloween celebration, or even an idea of it, in America until the 19th century, when it came with the Irish immigrants.

12. Which 1840s disaster in Ireland sent waves of immigrants, and their jack-o'-lantern habit, to America? The Great Potato Famine. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History names the waves of immigrants it created.

13. What changed trick-or-treating into a standard night for children in new suburbs? The postwar baby boom. The Heinz History Center says Halloween became an event for children, with "Trick or Treating" perfect for new suburban neighborhoods.

14. In what year, and in which city, did kids first collect coins in milk cartons for UNICEF on Halloween? 1950, in Philadelphia, and they collected $17. National Geographic Education tells the story.

15. True or false: scholars all agree that Halloween comes straight from Samhain. False, so be careful with the word "straight." A folklorist at Ohio State, quoted by Ohio State University, says some believe Halloween came from ancient pagan culture, "or perhaps it originated with Samhain." The Library of Congress tells the Samhain and All Saints story as a blend of Christian and pre-Christian belief.

Answer sheet for halloween history trivia questions and answers

Print this table for the quizmaster, or copy it onto a card. Points are our own suggestion: 1, 2 and 3 for the three rounds.

How to score a round for mixed ages

Give 1 point for each Round 1 answer, 2 for each Round 2 answer and 3 for each Round 3 answer. That makes the most a team can win 5 + 10 + 15 = 30 points. Younger players can still score on every Round 1 question and steal a Round 2 answer, so no team sits out.

The table shows the three rounds side by side. Score by round, and give every team the same questions.

Mixed teams work better than age groups. Put one older child or adult on each team of three or four. Let the youngest player give the final answer on Round 1 questions. A wrong answer passes to the next team, which can steal the point. If two teams tie, ask a sudden-death question from the answer sheet and award the point to the first correct team.

A trivia question is only fair if the person reading the answer can say where it came from.

For a quick round of about 10 minutes, ask 10 questions: Rounds 1 and 2, or any 10 you pick. That pacing is our own estimate at roughly a minute per question with the answer and source read aloud. Add Round 3 when you have 15 to 20 minutes.

Mark question 5 and question 15 with a star on the quizmaster sheet. Those are the two where the honest answer has a hedge ("legend" and "perhaps"), and reading the hedge aloud keeps the game accurate.

Ready-made cards when you do not want to write your own

If you would rather skip the writing and cutting, Halloween Trivia for Kids is a $3 PDF with 40 question cards. You get 20 Little Pumpkins cards for ages 5 to 7 and 20 Big Bats cards for ages 8 to 12. The answer is printed small and upside down on every card, so the reader never needs a separate sheet. It also has a score sheet for up to 6 teams and host answer sheets for both levels.

The cards are the wrong choice if you want history questions with a named source for each answer. Its cards are written for ages 5 to 12 and lean on animals, bones, pumpkins and the moon, with only one hedged history question. For the history rounds above, use this article's list. It is also not made for adults or tweens who want a hard quiz.

The pack is a PDF that opens in any PDF reader, so you need no other app. It has no type-in fields: you print it and write team names and scores by hand. It comes by email after checkout, so you can print it the same day, and it holds US Letter and A4 pages. Free printables exist and can be enough for one quick round. What the paid file adds is a matching set of 40 cards in one design, both paper sizes and nothing to redraw.

For a fully free route, copy the questions above onto index cards. Fold each card in half with the question on the front and the answer and source inside. You have a printable set in about ten minutes.

Three mistakes that spoil a Halloween quiz

Asking a question whose answer is a matter of taste is the first. "Which candy is best?" starts an argument and never ends. Stick to questions with one answer a page can confirm.

The second mistake is a question that is too hard for the youngest player in the room. If one child sits silent through five questions in a row, move to a question they can answer or let their team confer.

The third is a fun fact with no source. Many Halloween "facts" travel by repetition, and some of them fall apart when you check. If you cannot say where an answer comes from, drop the question before the game.