80 Lunar New Year Trivia Questions with Answers
80 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
Lunar New Year trivia explores the customs, calendars, foods, festivals, and legends connected with New Year celebrations across East and Central Asia. Questions may move from Chinese traditions, such as hanging the character for “fortune” upside down because it sounds like “arrive,” to the serpentine dragon dance performed with a long fabric figure held on poles.
This hub also reaches beyond China, covering Korea’s first-full-moon holiday, Vietnam’s Tết traditions, Tibet’s Butter Lamp Festival, Mongolia’s Tsagaan Sar, and historical calendar reforms. It suits family game nights, cultural quizzes, classroom activities, and pub quizzes that want more than zodiac-animal facts. Expect a blend of history, language, religious observance, ceremonial objects, and regional New Year customs.
What English nickname is used for the Chinese New Year candy box quanhe?
Answer
Tray of Togetherness
Which deity is believed to visit households on Bituun in Tsagaan Sar tradition?
Answer
Palden Lhamo
What is the day before Tsagaan Sar called in Mongolia?
Answer
Bituun
What Vietnamese Tết display is literally a five-fruit tray?
Answer
mâm ngũ quả
In Hokkien, Chap Goh Meh literally means what?
Answer
fifteen night
What English name is also used for Chinese New Year?
Answer
Spring Festival
Which deity is traditionally welcomed on the fifth day of Chinese New Year?
Answer
God of Wealth
Which flower commonly decorates northern Vietnamese homes during Tết?
Answer
peach blossom
What Vietnamese Tết pole is raised to ward off evil spirits?
Answer
cây nêu
What Mongolian Lunar New Year festival name means White Moon?
Answer
Tsagaan Sar
Which Vietnamese holiday name is commonly shortened to Tết?
Answer
Tết Nguyên Đán
Which country calls its Lunar New Year holiday Seollal?
Answer
South Korea
Which calendar type is Lunar New Year based on in many East Asian traditions?
Answer
lunisolar calendar
Since 1873, Japan's official New Year has followed which calendar?
Answer
Gregorian calendar
Which Japanese island chain still observes a lunisolar New Year?
Answer
Ryukyu islands
What are Cantonese red New Year couplets and decorations called?
Answer
Fai chun
What is the Mongolian New Year festival called?
Answer
Tsagaan Sar
What is the Korean Lunar New Year holiday called?
Answer
Seollal
Which calendar sets the traditional date of Chinese New Year?
Answer
Chinese calendar
How many days is the Losar festival listed as lasting?
Answer
15 days
Lunar New Year trivia — quick answers
What are good Lunar New Year trivia questions?
Good questions cover the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Mongolian traditions associated with the lunar new year. Try mixing food, festivals, greetings, calendars, dances, lucky symbols, historical figures, and regional customs rather than focusing only on zodiac animals.
How hard is Lunar New Year trivia?
It ranges from easy questions about red envelopes and dragon dances to challenging questions about historical calendars, regional festival names, and religious observances. A balanced quiz can work for families while still offering difficult questions for experienced pub-quiz teams.
Why is the Chinese character for fortune sometimes displayed upside down?
The character 福, meaning “fortune” or “good luck,” is often displayed upside down during Chinese New Year. In Mandarin, the phrase for “upside down” sounds similar to the phrase “has arrived,” creating a wordplay-based wish that fortune has arrived. The custom is especially associated with doors, windows, and other household decorations.
What is the Dragon Dance during Lunar New Year?
The Dragon Dance is a traditional celebration in which performers carry and animate a long dragon figure on poles. The dragon’s coordinated movements are accompanied by drums, gongs, and cymbals. It is commonly performed during Chinese New Year festivities and is associated with good fortune, prosperity, and the ceremonial removal of bad luck.
What is Tết?
Tết, short for Tết Nguyên Đán, is Vietnam’s most important traditional festival and marks the Vietnamese lunar new year. Celebrations commonly include family reunions, ancestor remembrance, special foods, house decorations, gift-giving, and lucky money in red envelopes. Customs and foods vary by region, and the holiday typically lasts for several days.