The room is ready, the snacks are out, somebody says let's do a quiz, and now you need a pile of questions with the answers already attached. This is that bank, cut by difficulty and by who is at the table, with the answer printed next to every factual question and a short manual for running the round.
Halloween is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. That one sentence is already three usable questions, which tells you how much of the night is quizzable without inventing anything.
When the Quiz Happens Somewhere Else
Trivia rounds start wherever the group already is: a bar table, a break room, a rented space. If that place is a VISU partner, scanning the code there turns the visit into a small reward.
Picking Your Set in Two Minutes
Do not read the whole bank. Pick one difficulty band and one audience band, count out about twenty questions, and stop. A round that ends while people still want another one is the right length.
The bank is cut two ways on purpose. Difficulty decides whether a question is a gift or a wall. Audience decides whether it is even askable: a nine year old and a table of adults do not share a reference frame. Choose the pair that matches the room, not the pair that matches you.
Every factual question carries its answer immediately after it, in italics, so the reader keeps the page to themselves and never pauses to verify anything. Questions with no correct answer sit in their own labelled section near the end.
If the ages in the room are spread, run the children's easy band as a warm up for everyone, then move up a band each round. The youngest players bank points early instead of waiting for a question they can reach.
Children, Easy: Pumpkins, Costumes and Candy
Ten for the youngest table. Every answer is a word or a short phrase, with no dates or place names.
1. What do you carve a face into to make a Halloween lantern? A pumpkin.
2. What goes inside the carved lantern to make it glow? A candle flame or a tealight.
3. What do you cut off the top of a pumpkin to make, before scooping it out? A lid.
4. What kind of face is usually carved into the pumpkin? A scary one or a funny one.
5. What do you shout at the door when someone opens it on Halloween night? Trick or treat.
6. What do you wear so people cannot tell who you are? A costume, or a mask.
7. In which month is Halloween? October.
8. What comes the day after Halloween? All Saints' Day, on 1 November.
9. What is the game called where you try to catch an apple floating in water using only your mouth? Apple bobbing.
10. Besides pumpkins, name one vegetable people used to carve lanterns from. A turnip, a rutabaga or a mangelwurzel.
Children, Medium: The Story Behind the Night
Eight for children who know the basics. Each still has a clean, checkable answer.
11. Where does the name jack-o'-lantern come from? From strange lights flickering over peat bogs, called jack-o'-lantern.
12. In the old story, what did Jack put the burning coal inside? A turnip he carved out.
13. In that same story, who gave Jack the burning coal? Satan, who tossed it to him mockingly.
14. What is the word guising short for? Disguising.
15. In Scotland and Ireland, what do children have to do before they get their treat? Perform a party trick, normally a song or a poem.
16. Apart from sweets, name one thing traditionally handed out to guisers. Fruit or nuts, such as apples.
17. What were the small cakes called that poor people collected door to door during Allhallowtide? Soul cakes.
18. Name one Halloween activity that involves fire outdoors. Lighting bonfires.
Teenagers, Medium: Words, Dates and Origins
Ten for a teenage table, where winning means being the one person who knew a specific word or year.
19. The English word Halloween is a contraction of which phrase? All Hallows' Eve.
20. From which language form does the word Halloween come? The Lowland Scots form of All Hallows' Eve.
21. In Scots, what does the word even mean, before it gets contracted to e'en? Eve or evening.
22. What does the Old English word halig mean, the root behind hallow? Holy.
23. Halloween is the first day of which observance period? Allhallowtide.
24. On which date is All Souls' Day? 2 November.
25. In which country and year is the interjection trick or treat first recorded? Canada, in the province of Ontario, in 1917.
26. Which Canadian province has the earliest record of children going house to house at Halloween, in 1898? British Columbia.
27. Which Gaelic festival is Halloween thought to be influenced by? Samhain.
28. In the West Mid Scots dialect, what is guising called? Galoshans.
Teenagers, Hard: The Ones That Split the Room
Six that will not be answered by everyone. Use them late in a teenage round, or hold two for a tiebreak.
29. What was the door to door practice of collecting soul cakes in exchange for prayers called? Souling.
30. Name two regions besides Britain where souling was recorded. Any two of Flanders, southern Germany, Austria.
31. Which English playwright mentions the souling practice in a comedy? William Shakespeare, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
32. In the Philippines, what is the souling custom called? Pangangaluwa.
33. In 835, which empire officially adopted 1 November as the date of All Saints' Day? The Frankish Empire.
34. Which Scottish poet made note of Halloween pranks in a work from 1780? John Mayne.
Adults, Medium: Customs and Where They Came From
Ten for adults who know the holiday socially but never read about it. Most adult rounds sit here.
35. What is the Welsh name of the related autumn festival? Calan Gaeaf.
36. What is the Manx festival related to Halloween called? Hop-tu-Naa.
37. For the Celts, when did the day begin and end? At sunset, so the festival begins the evening before 1 November.
38. In Brittany, the name for the festival period means what? First day of winter.
39. Name three fortune telling customs associated with the night. Any three of apple bobbing, nut roasting, mirror gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation.
40. Which two subjects were the divination games especially concerned with? Death and marriage.
41. What powers were the flames, smoke and ashes of the bonfires believed to have? Protective and cleansing powers.
42. In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called what? Gwrachod.
43. Name two Halloween observances practised by some Christians. Any two of church services, prayer, fasting, lighting candles on graves, vigil.
44. Which holiday shares a common origin with Halloween in the Christian commemoration of the dead? The Day of the Dead.
Adults, Hard: Language, Liturgy and Folklore
Eight for the band where a quiz turns competitive. Do not open a round with these, or half the table stops playing.
45. Which word has hallow historically been used synonymously with? Saint.
46. What reason is given for setting one day apart to honour all saints? There were more martyrs than there were days in the year.
47. Before 1 November, in which season were commemorations of all saints and martyrs mostly held? Springtime.
48. Which figure at Charlemagne's court may have promoted the 1 November date? Alcuin of Northumbria.
49. Why, according to the belief cited by Lawrence Sorie Conteh, did people put on masks or costumes? To avoid being recognised by departed souls seeking vengeance.
50. What did poor European churches let parishioners do at Allhallowtide instead of displaying relics? Dress up as saints.
51. In which century is the souling custom recorded as going back to? The fifteenth century.
52. Which 1837 newspaper refers to a pub holding a carved gourd competition? The Limerick Chronicle.
Tiebreakers Nobody Argues With
Four held back for a dead heat. Each has one unambiguous answer: a tiebreak decided by a judgement call poisons the night.
53. In which year is the interjection trick or treat first recorded, and in which province? 1917, in Ontario.
54. In the Sleepy Hollow story, what is discovered next to Ichabod Crane's abandoned hat? A shattered pumpkin.
55. What term besides McLantern appears in the Limerick Chronicle, in an 1841 publication? McLantern, the same term, in the same paper.
56. Which film is credited with popularising the phrase trick or treat at doors in the 1980s? E.T.
Opinion Round: No Right Answer
These have no correct answer and must not be scored. Use them between hard bands or as a closing round. Say out loud that they are opinion questions before reading the first.
57. Best costume anyone in this room has ever worn, and why?
58. Sweet, chocolate or fruit at the door: which is the correct thing to hand out?
59. Carved pumpkin face: scary or funny?
60. The house on the street that decorates most: admirable or too much?
61. Better night in or night out on 31 October?
62. If you could only keep one Halloween tradition, which one survives?
Running the Round: Scoring, Timing and Uneven Teams
The bank is the easy part. What decides whether the quiz works is five decisions made before question one.
Time per question. Thirty seconds for easy and medium, forty five for hard. Say the limit out loud once and hold to it. The failure mode is one team negotiating while the room waits.
Scoring. One point per correct answer, nothing else. Half points create an argument by roughly the third question. Where an answer accepts a range, as in name two of the following, decide beforehand whether that is one point or two.
Uneven teams. Teams are rarely balanced at a party, so do not equalise headcounts. Score by percentage: each team's points divided by the questions it faced, or by team size. A team of three and a team of six then compete on level terms. Announce it at the start, never after someone falls behind.
Who reads. One person reads all night and does not play. Rotating readers feels fairer and is worse: each new reader sees upcoming answers and the pace resets.
Order of bands. Start at the lowest audience band present, then step up. Ending on the opinion round closes the night on conversation rather than a scoreline.
Repairing a Round That Is Going Wrong
Quizzes fail in a few predictable ways, all fixable mid round.
Nobody is answering. The band is too hard. Drop one level without announcing it as a rescue, read three easy questions, let both teams score, then decide whether to climb back.
One team is running away with it. Switch to strict alternation, one question each, with a bounce to the other side on a miss. That converts a runaway into a chase without changing an announced rule.
Someone is checking answers on their phone. Set the norm before question one: phones face down. If it happens anyway, take verbal answers with a five second limit.
Arguments about wording. The reader's printed answer wins, said out loud before question one. When a question has two defensible answers, award both teams the point.
The room is drifting. Stop the band early. Finishing the list is not the goal, and nobody will know six questions were left.
Keep the sections you did not use. A bank cut by difficulty and audience runs a children's round in the afternoon and an adults' round at night, with nothing rewritten between the two. When the season is over, the same structure works with a food trivia round or a set of general questions for adults.
A Night Out That Gives Something Back
When the group moves the quiz to a bar or a restaurant, the visit itself can be worth something. At a VISU partner location, scan the code and the reward is tied to being there.
FAQ
How many Halloween trivia questions do you need for a party?
About twenty for a single round, from one difficulty band and one audience band. That ends while people still want more.
What are good Halloween trivia questions for young children?
Ones answered in a single word about things they can see: what you carve to make a lantern, what goes inside it, what you shout at the door. Dates and place names belong in a higher band.
How do you make the questions harder for adults without making them unfair?
Move from objects to language and origins. The vegetable in the lantern is easy, the phrase Halloween contracts from is medium, the Old English root behind hallow is hard.
How do you score when the teams are different sizes?
Score by percentage rather than raw points, dividing each team's score by the questions it faced or by its headcount. Announce it before the first question.
Should the answers be read out immediately?
Yes, right after each question, unless answers are written. Holding them to the end means the room debates a question it no longer remembers.
What do you do with questions that have no correct answer?
Keep them in a separate labelled round and do not score them. Mixing one into a scored band is the fastest way to start an argument about fairness.
Can the same question bank work for children and adults on the same night?
Yes, if it is cut by audience as well as difficulty. Run the children's bands early and the adult bands later, from the same page.
Let the Place You Are In Count for Something
VISU connects rewards to verified presence at partner locations. If the group is already meeting somewhere on the map, the bonus comes from showing up.
References
- Halloween, Wikipedia. Supports the date of 31 October, the link to All Hallows' Day and All Souls' Day, the Lowland Scots origin of the word, Allhallowtide, Samhain and the related festivals, the divination and bonfire customs, and the questions about saints, relics and costumes.
- Jack-o'-lantern, Wikipedia. Supports the carving method, the vegetables used before the pumpkin, the origin of the name in lights over peat bogs, the folk story of the carved turnip and the coal, and the Limerick Chronicle and Sleepy Hollow questions.
- Trick-or-treating, Wikipedia. Supports the first recorded dates in British Columbia and Ontario, guising and galoshans, the party trick expected in Scotland and Ireland, souling and soul cakes, the regions where souling was recorded, Pangangaluwa, and the 1980s popularisation of the phrase.
- The question ordering, the scoring method, the running manual and the opinion round are original editorial material. They make no statistical, psychological or health claim.