29 March 2024

Quiz: How well do you know spring festivals?

Spring sees the return of some of the year’s most incredible festivals and traditions. Can you banish the Böögg by completing our quiz?

2 mins

All images: Alamy; Shutterstock

1. In Thailand, the water-soaked festival of Songkran is held across which national holiday in April?

The Buddha's birthday

Spring Equinox

Mother's Day

New Year

2. Held in the town of Zenica in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Čimburijada festival includes a communal meal of which food?

Fish

Pilaf rice

Scrambled egg

Stuffed grape leaves

3. On 12 May 2024, the Belgian city of Ypres hosts a triennial festival honouring what animal?

Cat

Dragon

Guinea Pig

Wolf

4. April’s Kanamara Matsuri (or Festival of the Steel Phallus) takes place at a shrine in which Japanese city?

Kawasaki

Kyoto

Nagoya

Hakodate

5. Around 6 million tulips bloom in the run-up to May’s Tulip Time Festival in the city of Holland. In which US state can you find it?

California

Maryland

Michigan

Ohio

6. Which Swiss city hosts the burning of the Böögg – a straw effigy of a snowman-like creature that is packed with dynamite – in April?

Basel

Bern

Geneva

Zürich

7. The Da Jiu festival on the Hong Kong island of Cheung Chau includes a competition where entrants climb a metal tower covered in which food item?

Buns

Cabbages

Doughnuts

Eggs

8. The citizens of the Guatemalan city Antigua honour Semana Santa by crafting carpets mostly made from flowers, fruit and what other material?

Beads

Sawdust

Shells

Wood

9. Cinco de Mayo (5 May) celebrates the 1862 victory by Mexico over France in a battle that took place in which Mexican city?

Guadalajara

Mexico City

Oaxaca

Puebla

10. Walpurgis Night (30 April) was said to be when witches gathered atop Brocken – the highest peak in which German range?

Swabian Alps

Eifel

Harz

Allgäu Alps

11. Which traditional Scottish festival features a bonfire on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill on the night of 30 April?

Beltane

Burns Night

Samhain

Up Helly Aa

12. What fills the air above AlUla, Saudi Arabia, during April’s Skies Festival?

Hot Air Balloons

Kites

Lanterns

Paper planes