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Seven days of questions and answers

New Year Trivia Answers Archive

Review earlier daily rounds, reveal the correct answer, and use the short explanation to learn the fact behind each question. Page 5 of 12 covers seven completed UTC days.

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Daily round

  1. Which paper accessory is traditionally pulled apart at festive British dinners?

    Answer: Christmas cracker

    A Christmas cracker is pulled by two people and opens with a snap, often around the New Year holiday period.

  2. Which Brazilian city is known for a large beach celebration at Copacabana?

    Answer: Rio de Janeiro

    Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro hosts a major New Year's Eve gathering.

  3. A Gregorian year divisible by 100 is a leap year only when it is also divisible by what number?

    Answer: 400

    The Gregorian rule keeps century years as leap years only when they are divisible by 400.

  4. What is the Japanese New Year holiday called?

    Answer: Shōgatsu

    Shōgatsu is the Japanese celebration of the new calendar year.

  5. Which ancient civilization is often credited with recording early New Year resolutions?

    Answer: Babylonians

    Ancient Babylonians made seasonal promises connected with debts and returned property.

Daily round

  1. Which sticky rice cakes are traditional Japanese New Year foods?

    Answer: Mochi

    Mochi made from pounded glutinous rice is strongly associated with Japanese New Year meals.

  2. Which explosive decoration was historically used to drive away evil spirits in Chinese tradition?

    Answer: Firecrackers

    Firecrackers became part of New Year celebrations through traditions about frightening harmful spirits.

  3. The Islamic calendar is based primarily on which cycle?

    Answer: Phases of the Moon

    Islamic months begin according to a lunar cycle, making the year shorter than a solar year.

  4. Which sweet rice balls are commonly served at the Lantern Festival?

    Answer: Tangyuan

    Tangyuan are round glutinous-rice dumplings whose shape symbolizes family unity.

  5. At which longitude is the Prime Meridian defined?

    Answer: 0 degrees

    The Prime Meridian is the reference line at zero degrees longitude.

Daily round

  1. In which year did the first Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop take place?

    Answer: 1907

    The first Times Square ball was lowered to welcome 1908 on December 31, 1907.

  2. In Denmark, what household item may people jump from at midnight?

    Answer: A chair

    A Danish custom has celebrants jump from a chair to symbolically leap into the new year.

  3. Which Japanese decoration combines pine and bamboo at New Year?

    Answer: Kadomatsu

    Kadomatsu decorations use pine and bamboo and are placed near entrances for New Year.

  4. How many years make a century?

    Answer: 100

    A century comprises one hundred years.

  5. Which country recognizes Matariki as a public holiday?

    Answer: New Zealand

    New Zealand established a national public holiday celebrating Matariki.

Daily round

  1. Which punctuation mark is often used to separate hours, minutes, and seconds in a digital countdown?

    Answer: Colon

    Digital time displays conventionally use colons between hours, minutes, and seconds.

  2. What is the Scottish name for the final day of the old year and its celebrations?

    Answer: Hogmanay

    Hogmanay is the Scottish term for New Year's Eve and the surrounding festivities.

  3. Which Roman deity's two faces made him a symbol of looking backward and forward?

    Answer: Janus

    Janus was conventionally shown with two faces and associated with beginnings and passages.

  4. What does a countdown measure before midnight?

    Answer: Time remaining

    A countdown announces the shrinking number of seconds until the new year begins.

  5. What is an epoch in calendar terminology?

    Answer: A reference point from which time is counted

    An epoch is the chosen starting instant used by a chronological system.

Daily round

  1. Which calendar has thirteen months, including a short final month called Pagumen?

    Answer: Ethiopian calendar

    The Ethiopian calendar uses twelve 30-day months plus the short month Pagumen.

  2. What leafy vegetable often represents paper money in southern U.S. New Year meals?

    Answer: Collard greens

    Collard greens are linked symbolically with money because of their green, folded leaves.

  3. Thingyan is the traditional New Year water festival of which country?

    Answer: Myanmar

    Thingyan is Myanmar's April New Year celebration and is widely known for water festivities.

  4. Which activity is famously associated with Songkran?

    Answer: Water splashing

    Public water splashing grew from Songkran practices of respectful cleansing and blessing.

  5. Confetti was named after small sweets from which country?

    Answer: Italy

    The word confetti comes from Italian sweets once thrown during festive occasions.

Daily round

  1. Which item is commonly raised for a toast at midnight?

    Answer: A drinking glass

    Participants commonly lift drinking glasses when making a New Year's toast.

  2. In which river is the London Eye reflected during many London New Year celebrations?

    Answer: Thames

    The London Eye stands beside the River Thames in central London.

  3. What traditional object is lowered at midnight in Times Square?

    Answer: A ball

    A lighted ball descends a flagpole above Times Square as midnight approaches.

  4. What does the Latin phrase “anno Domini” literally mean?

    Answer: In the year of the Lord

    Anno Domini literally means “in the year of the Lord” and underlies the abbreviation AD.

  5. The month of January is named for which Roman god?

    Answer: Janus

    January takes its name from Janus, the Roman god associated with doorways and transitions.

Daily round

  1. Rosh Hashanah is the New Year observance of which religion?

    Answer: Judaism

    Rosh Hashanah marks the Jewish New Year within the Hebrew calendar.

  2. Approximately how long does Earth take to orbit the Sun once?

    Answer: 365.24 days

    Earth's tropical year is about 365.24 days, which is why leap-day adjustments are needed.

  3. Which country has a New Year custom of casting molten metal and interpreting its shape?

    Answer: Finland

    Finnish New Year fortune-telling traditionally interprets shapes formed by cooled molten metal.

  4. The name Nowruz comes from Persian words meaning what?

    Answer: New day

    Nowruz combines Persian words whose English meanings are new and day.

  5. Which calendar did the Gregorian calendar replace in countries that adopted the reform?

    Answer: Julian calendar

    The Gregorian reform corrected drift that had accumulated under the Julian calendar.