Halloween customs & origins – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the Halloween customs & origins quiz, each with a short explanation. From Celtic Samhain to jack-o'-lanterns and trick-or-treating. Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Halloween's roots trace to Samhain, a festival of which ancient culture?
Answer: The Celts
Halloween descends from Samhain, a festival of the ancient Celts of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, marking the end of harvest and the start of winter, when the boundary between the living and the dead was thought to thin.
2. Before pumpkins, what vegetable did the Irish and Scots carve into lanterns?
Answer: Turnips
Irish and Scottish households hollowed out turnips (and the related neep) and cut faces in them, lighting them with a coal or candle to ward off spirits; emigrants to North America switched to the bigger, softer pumpkin.
3. On what date is All Saints' Day, the feast that gives Halloween its name?
Answer: 1 November
All Saints' Day, also called All Hallows, falls on 1 November; the evening before it, All Hallows' Eve, was shortened to Hallowe'en, and All Souls' Day follows on 2 November.
4. In the medieval custom of 'souling', what did the poor receive for praying?
Answer: Soul cakes
In the medieval English custom of souling, poor people and children went door to door during Allhallowtide offering prayers for the dead in return for small spiced soul cakes marked with a cross, a forerunner of trick-or-treating.
5. Día de los Muertos, with its sugar skulls and marigolds, is mainly from where?
Answer: Mexico
Día de los Muertos is a Mexican celebration held on 1-2 November, with ofrendas, sugar skulls and orange marigolds (cempasúchil) believed to guide the dead home; UNESCO listed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.
6. In Irish legend, which trickster was doomed to roam with a carved lantern?
Answer: Stingy Jack
Irish folklore tells of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who tricked the Devil and was refused entry to both heaven and hell, left to wander with an ember inside a hollowed turnip. His nickname 'Jack of the Lantern' gave us the word jack-o'-lantern.
7. All Souls' Day, when the dead are remembered, falls on which date?
Answer: 2 November
All Souls' Day, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, falls on 2 November, the day after All Saints' Day. It was popularised by St Odilo of Cluny around 998 as a day to pray for souls in purgatory.
8. In bobbing for apples, how are players meant to grab the floating fruit?
Answer: With their teeth, hands behind their back
In apple bobbing, apples float in a tub of water and players must catch one using only their teeth, with hands held or tied behind the back. The game is called 'dooking' in Scotland and has roots in old marriage-divination customs.
9. Obon, a summer festival honouring ancestors with lanterns, is held in which country?
Answer: Japan
Obon is a Japanese Buddhist observance honouring ancestral spirits, usually held 13–16 August (July in parts of Tokyo), with lanterns to guide spirits home, Bon Odori dances and floating lanterns called toro nagashi.
10. What is the Scottish name for children dressing up and performing for treats?
Answer: Guising
In Scotland, children in costume going door to door and performing a song, poem or joke for treats is called guising, from 'disguise'; the custom predates American trick-or-treating and was first recorded in North America around 1911 in Ontario.
11. The word 'Halloween' is a shortened form of which phrase?
Answer: All Hallows' Even (evening)
Halloween is a contraction of 'All Hallows' Even', the evening before All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November; 'hallow' comes from Old English halig, meaning holy. The shortened Scots form Hallowe'en is recorded from the 1550s.
12. Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of which season?
Answer: Winter
Samhain, held on 1 November with its eve on 31 October, marked the end of the harvest season and the start of winter, the darker half of the Gaelic year. It falls roughly midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.
13. Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a festival honouring ancestors in which country?
Answer: China
Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a Chinese festival held around 4-6 April when families clean ancestors' graves and make offerings of food, incense and burnt spirit money. It is one of China's official public holidays.
14. Why did carved lanterns switch from turnips to pumpkins?
Answer: Pumpkins were plentiful in North America
Irish and Scottish emigrants carved turnips, beets and potatoes at Samhain, but after arriving in 19th-century North America they adopted the native pumpkin, which was abundant, larger and far easier to hollow out.
15. On which two dates is Día de los Muertos mainly celebrated?
Answer: 1 and 2 November
Día de los Muertos is observed on 1 and 2 November, coinciding with the Catholic All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day; 1 November typically honours deceased children and 2 November deceased adults.