100 Halloween Trivia Questions and Answers (2026): Easy to Hard

Here are 100 Halloween trivia questions and answers for 2026, split into 12 rounds that run from easy to hard: classic Halloween facts, horror movies, candy, costumes, trick-or-treating, monsters, pumpkins, music, superstitions, history, Halloween around the world, and a tough final round for adults. Every answer sits right under its question, so you can read straight from this page at a party, an office happy hour or a Zoom call. Halloween falls on a Saturday, October 31, 2026.

The figures are current: the costume, candy and spending answers use the National Retail Federation's 2026 Halloween survey, and the giant pumpkin record reflects the 2,819-pound pumpkin weighed in England in 2025. Want the questions without the answers showing? Get the printable trivia pack, with a separate answer key, by email.

How to use these questions

• Quick office game (15–20 minutes): pick two rounds and read 10 questions each.
• Full trivia night (about 60 minutes): split into teams of 4–6, play six rounds of 8–10 questions, and finish with the hard round as a tiebreaker.
• Kids and mixed ages: stick to rounds 1, 3, 4 and 7.
• Adults who think they know it all: rounds 6, 10 and 12.

Playing with younger kids? Try our 60 Halloween trivia questions for kids. Movie fans can go deeper with 50 Halloween movie trivia questions.

Jump to a round

• Round 1: Classic Halloween trivia (easy) (10 questions)
• Round 2: Halloween movie trivia (10 questions)
• Round 3: Halloween candy trivia (10 questions)
• Round 4: Halloween costume trivia (8 questions)
• Round 5: Trick-or-treat trivia (7 questions)
• Round 6: Famous figures and monsters (10 questions)
• Round 7: Pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns (9 questions)
• Round 8: Halloween music trivia (7 questions)
• Round 9: Superstitions and myths (8 questions)
• Round 10: Halloween history and origins (8 questions)
• Round 11: Halloween around the world (8 questions)
• Round 12: Hard Halloween trivia for adults (5 questions)

Round 1: Classic Halloween trivia (easy)

A warm-up everyone can answer, covering where the holiday came from and its best-known symbols.

1. Where does the word "Halloween" come from?
   Answer: From "All Hallows' Eve," the evening before All Saints' Day on November 1. Over time the phrase All Hallows' Eve was shortened to Halloween.

2. What ancient Celtic festival is Halloween rooted in?
   Answer: Samhain (pronounced "SOW-in"). Halloween originated from this ancient Celtic festival, celebrated from sunset on October 31 to November 1.

3. On what date is Halloween celebrated, and what day of the week is it in 2026?
   Answer: October 31. In 2026 it falls on a Saturday.

4. Which First Lady was the first to decorate the White House for Halloween?
   Answer: Mamie Eisenhower, in 1958.

5. Which country did the jack-o'-lantern tradition come from?
   Answer: Ireland.

6. What is the name of the trickster in the Irish legend behind the jack-o'-lantern?
   Answer: Stingy Jack. Jack-o'-lanterns originated from this Irish myth: Jack tricked the devil and was left to wander the earth with a carved turnip lantern.

7. What fruit do people bob for at Halloween parties?
   Answer: Apples. Bobbing for apples is a traditional Halloween game that comes from old British harvest festivals.

8. What are Halloween's two traditional colors, and what do they stand for?
   Answer: Orange for the autumn harvest and black for death and darkness.

9. Which U.S. state grows the most pumpkins?
   Answer: Illinois.

10. True or false: Halloween began as a pagan festival.
    Answer: True. It grew out of Samhain and later merged with the Christian All Hallows' Eve.

Round 2: Halloween movie trivia

From Hitchcock to Hocus Pocus. Good for teams that spend October on the couch with a horror marathon.

11. Which 1978 horror movie is set in Haddonfield, Illinois?
    Answer: Halloween, directed by John Carpenter.

12. Who directed Psycho (1960)?
    Answer: Alfred Hitchcock.

13. Which horror franchise introduced the haunted doll Annabelle?
    Answer: The Conjuring universe.

14. What is the highest-grossing horror film of all time?
    Answer: It (2017), with about $700 million worldwide.

15. Which horror film made the song "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" terrifying?
    Answer: Insidious (2010).

16. In what year was the original A Nightmare on Elm Street released?
    Answer: 1984.

17. Which horror villain wears a hockey mask?
    Answer: Jason Voorhees, in the Friday the 13th films.

18. In Hocus Pocus (1993), what is the family name of the three witch sisters?
    Answer: Sanderson (Winifred, Mary and Sarah).

19. In It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, who waits all night in the pumpkin patch?
    Answer: Linus.

20. Which Tim Burton film's ghost appears when you say his name three times?
    Answer: Beetlejuice (1988).

Round 3: Halloween candy trivia

Americans will spend about $4.1 billion on Halloween candy in 2026. Here is how well your team knows it.

21. Which candy tops most U.S. rankings of favorite Halloween candy?
    Answer: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

22. Which type of candy sells the most at Halloween: chocolate, gummies or hard candy?
    Answer: Chocolate, by a wide margin.

23. About how much candy corn is made each year?
    Answer: Roughly 35 million pounds, or around 9 billion kernels.

24. What was candy corn originally called?
    Answer: "Chicken Feed." Candy corn was originally called Chicken Feed because it was marketed to farm families.

25. Which candy bar, launched in 1930, was named after a horse?
    Answer: Snickers, named after the Mars family's favorite horse.

26. Which chewy candy was packed in U.S. soldiers' rations during World War II?
    Answer: Tootsie Rolls.

27. Which candy regularly lands at the bottom of "worst Halloween candy" polls?
    Answer: Circus Peanuts, with candy corn not far behind.

28. What flavor are red Swedish Fish?
    Answer: Lingonberry, a Scandinavian berry.

29. How much will Americans spend on Halloween candy in 2026, according to the National Retail Federation?
    Answer: About $4.1 billion.

30. Which candy bar was named after a malted milkshake, not the galaxy?
    Answer: Milky Way.

Round 4: Halloween costume trivia

The 2026 numbers come from the National Retail Federation's annual Halloween survey.

31. What is the most popular adult Halloween costume in 2026?
    Answer: A witch (about 4.8 million adults), followed by a vampire.

32. What is the most popular children's costume in 2026?
    Answer: Spider-Man (about 4.6 million children).

33. What is the most popular pet costume?
    Answer: A pumpkin, followed by a hot dog.

34. How much will Americans spend on Halloween costumes in 2026?
    Answer: About $4.4 billion.

35. Why did people originally wear disguises at Samhain?
    Answer: To hide from the spirits believed to roam the earth that night.

36. What is "guising"?
    Answer: A Scottish and Irish custom. Guising involves dressing in costumes and performing a song, poem or joke in exchange for treats.

37. Who wrote Frankenstein, first published in 1818?
    Answer: Mary Shelley.

38. What is Frankenstein's creature made from?
    Answer: Parts of different dead bodies, assembled and brought to life by Victor Frankenstein.

Round 5: Trick-or-treat trivia

Door-to-door begging for treats is far older than the candy bar. Today trick-or-treating sits alongside costume contests, Halloween parties and haunted house attractions.

39. What was the medieval practice of going door to door offering prayers for the dead in exchange for "soul cakes"?
    Answer: Souling. Trick-or-treating originated from souling and other medieval European traditions.

40. When did trick-or-treating become widespread in the United States?
    Answer: After World War II, in the late 1940s and 1950s. Before candy became dominant, Halloween treats were usually fruits, nuts and coins.

41. Where was the phrase "trick or treat" first recorded in print?
    Answer: Alberta, Canada, in 1927.

42. What Christian feast on November 2 honors all the faithful departed?
    Answer: All Souls' Day.

43. What is total U.S. Halloween spending expected to reach in 2026?
    Answer: A record $13.5 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

44. About how much does the average American plan to spend on Halloween in 2026?
    Answer: About $115.

45. What is "trunk-or-treat"?
    Answer: Trick-or-treating from decorated car trunks in a parking lot, often run by schools and churches.

Round 6: Famous figures and monsters

Halloween is full of creatures like ghosts, witches, vampires and mummies. This round covers the monsters, magicians and one radio broadcast that fooled a nation.

46. What does "Dracula" mean in Romanian?
    Answer: "Son of Dracul." Dracul can mean either dragon or devil.

47. Who wrote Dracula, and when was it published?
    Answer: Bram Stoker, in 1897. Vampire legends are much older and can be traced back to ancient civilizations.

48. Which real 15th-century prince lent Dracula his name?
    Answer: Vlad III of Wallachia, known as Vlad the Impaler.

49. Which famous magician died on Halloween?
    Answer: Harry Houdini, on October 31, 1926.

50. Who played Dracula in the 1931 Universal film?
    Answer: Bela Lugosi.

51. Who is known as the "Mother of Modern Witchcraft"?
    Answer: Doreen Valiente.

52. Is "Frankenstein" the name of the monster or the scientist?
    Answer: The scientist, Victor Frankenstein. The creature is never given a name.

53. What are Egyptian mummies wrapped in?
    Answer: Linen bandages.

54. Which 1938 radio drama, aired the night before Halloween, convinced some listeners that Martians had landed?
    Answer: Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds, on October 30, 1938.

55. Which Massachusetts town, known for its 1692 witch trials, calls itself "Witch City"?
    Answer: Salem.

Round 7: Pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns

Before pumpkins there were turnips, and before the 2025 record there was a long line of very heavy fruit.

56. What did people in Ireland carve before pumpkins?
    Answer: Turnips. The first jack-o'-lanterns were made from turnips, potatoes and beets, not pumpkins.

57. How much did the heaviest pumpkin ever grown weigh?
    Answer: 2,819 pounds. "Muggle," grown by twin brothers Ian and Stuart Paton in England, set the record in 2025.

58. How much did the heaviest carved jack-o'-lantern weigh?
    Answer: About 1,810 pounds, carved in 2010.

59. What is the most popular pumpkin variety for carving?
    Answer: Connecticut Field.

60. About how many seeds are in an average pumpkin?
    Answer: About 500.

61. Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
    Answer: A fruit. Botanically, it is a type of berry.

62. Roughly how much of a pumpkin is water?
    Answer: About 90%.

63. Why did Irish immigrants in America switch from turnips to pumpkins?
    Answer: Pumpkins were native, plentiful and much easier to carve.

64. Which Illinois town calls itself the "Pumpkin Capital of the World"?
    Answer: Morton, Illinois.

Round 8: Halloween music trivia

Five minutes of this round and someone will start doing the Thriller dance.

65. Who sang "Monster Mash" in 1962?
    Answer: Bobby "Boris" Pickett.

66. Finish the lyric: "It was a ___ smash."
    Answer: Graveyard.

67. Which music video features a famous dance routine with zombies?
    Answer: Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

68. Michael Jackson hired the director of which werewolf film to make the "Thriller" video?
    Answer: An American Werewolf in London, directed by John Landis.

69. In what year was the album Thriller released?
    Answer: 1982.

70. What was the working title of the song "Thriller"?
    Answer: "Starlight."

71. Who wrote and sang the Ghostbusters theme ("Who you gonna call?")?
    Answer: Ray Parker Jr.

Round 9: Superstitions and myths

Folklore answers, so accept anything close.

72. Which animal is most associated with witches and bad luck?
    Answer: The black cat. Black cats are associated with witchcraft and bad luck on Halloween.

73. According to folklore, what does it mean if you see a spider on Halloween?
    Answer: The spirit of a loved one is watching over you.

74. According to old superstition, what happens if you wear your clothes inside out and walk backwards on Halloween night?
    Answer: You will see a witch at midnight.

75. Why did the Celts light huge fires at Samhain?
    Answer: To ward off evil spirits and guide the souls of the dead.

76. True or false: medieval folklore held that witches could turn into black cats.
    Answer: True.

77. What is the fear of Halloween called?
    Answer: Samhainophobia.

78. How often does a full moon fall on Halloween?
    Answer: About three or four times a century. The last was in 2020 and the next is in 2039.

79. Why did bats become a symbol of Halloween?
    Answer: Samhain bonfires attracted insects, and the insects attracted bats.

Round 10: Halloween history and origins

Two thousand years in eight questions.

80. What did Samhain mark in the Celtic calendar?
    Answer: The end of the harvest and the start of winter, the "darker half" of the year.

81. Which Scottish poet's 1785 poem "Halloween" helped popularize the holiday?
    Answer: Robert Burns.

82. Who brought Halloween to the United States in large numbers?
    Answer: Irish immigrants popularized Halloween in the United States, especially after the potato famine of the 1840s.

83. Which Christian holiday falls the day after Halloween?
    Answer: All Saints' Day, November 1.

84. Which pope moved All Saints' Day to November 1?
    Answer: Pope Gregory III, in the 8th century.

85. Where does the word "bonfire" come from?
    Answer: "Bone fire." Animal bones were burned in the fires.

86. Why did people first wear costumes on Halloween?
    Answer: To disguise themselves from ghosts and evil spirits.

87. Which city holds the largest Halloween parade in the United States?
    Answer: New York City. The Village Halloween Parade draws around 50,000 costumed marchers.

Round 11: Halloween around the world

Not every country celebrates October 31, but most have a night for spirits.

88. Which European city hosts the largest Halloween festival?
    Answer: Derry, Northern Ireland.

89. Which Mexican holiday on November 1–2 honors loved ones who have died?
    Answer: Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

90. What is the name of Japan's summer festival honoring the spirits of ancestors?
    Answer: Obon.

91. In Sweden and Finland, children dress up as witches and go door to door for treats during which holiday?
    Answer: Easter.

92. Which Celtic festival has been revived around October 31 in Galicia, Spain?
    Answer: Samaín.

93. Which Chinese festival honors wandering spirits in the seventh lunar month?
    Answer: The Hungry Ghost Festival.

94. What do Filipinos call their All Saints' and All Souls' Day observance?
    Answer: Undas.

95. Which country lights bonfires on November 5 for Guy Fawkes Night?
    Answer: The United Kingdom.

Round 12: Hard Halloween trivia for adults

The tiebreaker round. If a team gets all five, check their phones.

96. What is the Irish Halloween fruit bread with a ring baked inside?
    Answer: Barmbrack. Whoever finds the ring is said to marry within the year.

97. Which Irish mashed potato dish traditionally hides coins or a ring at Halloween?
    Answer: Colcannon.

98. Which orange flower is the symbol of Día de los Muertos?
    Answer: The marigold (cempasúchil).

99. How many films were in the original Halloween franchise, from 1978 to Halloween Ends in 2022?
    Answer: 13.

100. "Monster Mash" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 just before Halloween in which year?
     Answer: 1962.

How to host a Halloween trivia night

A good trivia night takes about an hour and needs no special equipment. Here is the format we use with teams.

1. Make teams of 4–6. Mix departments so nobody sits with their usual lunch group.
2. Pick six rounds. Rounds 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 and 12 make a balanced mix of easy, pop culture and hard.
3. Read each question twice and give 30 seconds to answer. Collect answers at the end of each round.
4. Score one point per answer and two for the hard round, and announce the scores after every round.
5. Have a prize. Candy works. A costume vote between rounds keeps the energy up.

On Zoom, put each team in a breakout room for 3 minutes per round and have one person type answers into the chat. For a bigger in-person event, pair trivia with something hands-on. Our team building workshops in NYC and virtual workshops work as the main event, with trivia as the warm-up. Planning a night out in the city? See Halloween activities in NYC for adults.

Frequently asked questions

What are some good Halloween trivia questions for adults?

Rounds 6, 10 and 12 above are the hardest: Dracula's Romanian meaning, Robert Burns's 1785 poem, and barmbrack and colcannon. Mix them with a pop culture round so everyone gets some right.

What are easy Halloween trivia questions for kids?

Round 1 (classic facts), round 3 (candy), round 4 (costumes) and round 7 (pumpkins) work for ages 8 and up. Skip the horror movie round for younger kids.

How many questions should a Halloween trivia game have?

Plan on 40–60 questions for an hour: six rounds of 8–10. A 15-minute office game needs about 20.

What is the most popular Halloween costume in 2026?

For adults, a witch, followed by a vampire. For children, Spider-Man. For pets, a pumpkin. These figures come from the National Retail Federation's 2026 survey.

Where did Halloween originate?

In the Celtic festival of Samhain, held about 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, Scotland and northern France. Irish immigrants brought the holiday to the United States in the 1800s.

Is there a printable version of these Halloween trivia questions?

Yes. Enter your email in the form on this page and we will send the printable trivia pack with a separate answer key.

More trivia for the season: Thanksgiving trivia questions, Christmas trivia questions and pop culture trivia. Planning the year-end party too? Read our holiday party alternatives.