New Year’s Eve Trivia: 36 Questions and Answers for the Countdown
New Year’s Eve trivia covers the history, songs, food and worldwide traditions of December 31, with the answer directly under each question. A quick one to start a party: the ball first dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve 1907, and it has dropped every year since except 1942 and 1943.
The questions are split into six rounds. Run all of them as a full quiz, or pick one round to fill the half hour before midnight. A compact answer key for hosts is at the end.
New Year history and calendar trivia
1. Whose calendar made January 1 the official start of the Roman year?
Answer: Julius Caesar’s. The Julian calendar took effect in 45 BC.
2. January is named after which Roman god?
Answer: Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings and doorways.
3. Which ancient people are credited with the earliest recorded New Year’s resolutions?
Answer: The Babylonians, about 4,000 years ago. They promised their gods to repay debts and return borrowed items.
4. In what season did the Babylonian new year begin?
Answer: Spring. Their new year festival, Akitu, fell around the March equinox.
5. Until 1752, on what date did the legal year begin in England and its American colonies?
Answer: March 25.
6. Which pope introduced the calendar most of the world uses today?
Answer: Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582.
7. On what date did the third millennium begin?
Answer: January 1, 2001. There was no year zero, so 2000 was the last year of the second millennium, even though most of the world celebrated a year early.
Times Square trivia
8. In what year did the ball first drop in Times Square?
Answer: 1907.
9. The first Times Square New Year’s Eve party, in 1904, celebrated the opening of which company’s new headquarters?
Answer: The New York Times. The square is named after the paper, and the 1904 party ended with fireworks.
10. What was the first ball made of?
Answer: Iron and wood, with 100 light bulbs. It weighed about 700 pounds.
11. Why was the ball not dropped in 1942 and 1943?
Answer: Wartime dimout rules. The crowds marked midnight with a minute of silence followed by chimes.
12. Which Irish crystal maker has supplied the ball’s panels since the millennium celebration?
Answer: Waterford.
13. The dropping ball copies an older timekeeping device. What was it?
Answer: The time ball. Observatories dropped a ball at a set time each day so ships’ crews could set their clocks. The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, has dropped one at 1 p.m. since 1833.
Auld Lang Syne and music trivia
14. What song is traditionally sung at midnight in English-speaking countries?
Answer: “Auld Lang Syne.”
15. Which Scottish poet wrote down its words in 1788?
Answer: Robert Burns. He said he took the song down from an old man’s singing.
16. What does “auld lang syne” mean?
Answer: Roughly “old long since,” or “days gone by.”
17. Which bandleader made the song an American New Year’s Eve fixture, starting with radio broadcasts in 1929?
Answer: Guy Lombardo, with his band the Royal Canadians.
18. Which TV personality created New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in 1972?
Answer: Dick Clark.
New Year traditions around the world
19. In Spain, how many grapes do people eat at midnight?
Answer: Twelve, one for each chime of the clock.
20. What do Scots call New Year’s Eve?
Answer: Hogmanay.
21. In Scotland, what is “first-footing”?
Answer: Being the first person to cross a home’s threshold after midnight. The first-footer traditionally brings small gifts such as coal, shortbread or whisky.
22. How many times are Buddhist temple bells struck in Japan on New Year’s Eve?
Answer: 108 times, one for each of the 108 worldly desires in Buddhist teaching.
23. What do Danes traditionally smash against friends’ front doors on New Year’s Eve?
Answer: Old plates and dishes.
24. What color do most people wear on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on New Year’s Eve?
Answer: White. Many also jump seven waves for luck.
25. Which country is the first to reach the new year?
Answer: Kiribati. Its Line Islands sit at UTC+14.
26. Which Pacific nation skipped December 30, 2011, by moving to the other side of the International Date Line?
Answer: Samoa.
New Year food trivia
27. Which beans are eaten on New Year’s Day in the American South for luck?
Answer: Black-eyed peas.
28. What is the name of the Southern dish of black-eyed peas and rice?
Answer: Hoppin’ John.
29. Collard greens are usually served alongside. What are they supposed to bring?
Answer: Money, because the leaves look like folded bills.
30. What fried dough balls do Dutch families eat on New Year’s Eve?
Answer: Oliebollen.
31. Champagne is named after a region of which country?
Answer: France.
New Year’s Eve movie and pop culture trivia
32. In which 1989 romantic comedy does the hero run across Manhattan to reach a New Year’s Eve party?
Answer: When Harry Met Sally…
33. In which 1972 disaster film does a cruise ship capsize just after midnight on New Year’s Eve?
Answer: The Poseidon Adventure.
34. What was the Y2K bug?
Answer: A problem with computers that stored years as two digits, so “00” could be read as 1900 instead of 2000.
35. In what year was the most recent leap second added, at 23:59:60 UTC on December 31?
Answer: 2016.
36. Is 2027 a leap year?
Answer: No. The next leap year is 2028.
How to run a New Year’s Eve trivia game
Split players into teams of three to five. Read one round at a time, give about 30 seconds per question, and award one point per correct answer.
Thirty-six questions take roughly an hour with scoring. If you want the final answer read at midnight, start around 10:45 p.m. and save the Times Square round for last.
Keep a tiebreaker ready. Ask teams to write down the year Robert Burns died, and the closest guess wins. The answer is 1796.
For a family party, the traditions, food and Times Square rounds suit younger players. The calendar and pop culture rounds work better for teens and adults.
If the group enjoys a decades round, our 90s trivia questions and answers slot in after this quiz. For a sleepover or a party that runs late, our list of scary games to play in real life fills the time after midnight. Teachers running this before winter break can pair it with a resolutions activity from our quotes about goals for students.
New Year’s Eve trivia answers at a glance
History and calendar: 1. Julius Caesar. 2. Janus. 3. The Babylonians. 4. Spring. 5. March 25. 6. Pope Gregory XIII. 7. January 1, 2001.
Times Square: 8. 1907. 9. The New York Times. 10. Iron and wood. 11. Wartime dimout rules. 12. Waterford. 13. The time ball.
Music: 14. “Auld Lang Syne.” 15. Robert Burns. 16. “Old long since.” 17. Guy Lombardo. 18. Dick Clark.
Around the world: 19. Twelve. 20. Hogmanay. 21. First guest after midnight. 22. 108. 23. Old plates. 24. White. 25. Kiribati. 26. Samoa.
Food: 27. Black-eyed peas. 28. Hoppin’ John. 29. Money. 30. Oliebollen. 31. France.
Movies and pop culture: 32. When Harry Met Sally… 33. The Poseidon Adventure. 34. Two-digit years. 35. 2016. 36. No.
FAQ
How many questions should a New Year’s Eve trivia game have?
Thirty to forty questions fill about an hour. Five or six rounds of six questions keeps the pace steady and leaves time for scoring.
Why does the new year start on January 1?
Because of the Roman calendar. Julius Caesar’s Julian calendar set January 1 as the start of the year in 45 BC, and the Gregorian calendar of 1582 kept it.
What is an easy New Year’s Eve trivia question for kids?
Ask what song people sing at midnight (“Auld Lang Syne”) or how many grapes people eat in Spain (twelve). Both are easy to remember and fun to act out.
Which country celebrates New Year’s Eve first?
Kiribati. Its Line Islands are 14 hours ahead of UTC, so they reach midnight before anywhere else.