75 Halloween Trivia Questions and Answers

1. Botanists call a pumpkin's hard-rinded type of fruit a what?

2. What do the male flowers on a pumpkin plant supply for fruit-making?

3. What small clue sits beneath a female pumpkin flower before it opens?

4. What are the coiling plant parts that help a pumpkin vine grip a support?

5. Which weather event can damage a growing pumpkin vine's tender leaves?

6. What does curing a harvested pumpkin help its outer skin do?

7. What change in a pumpkin's stem helps signal that the fruit is ready to harvest?

8. When carrying a pumpkin home for Halloween, why avoid lifting it by its stem?

9. Many giant competition pumpkins belong to which species?

10. If compatible squash cross-pollinate, where will their mixed traits show up?

11. Why might a giant-pumpkin grower remove extra young fruits?

12. A pumpkin is an annual plant. What does annual mean here?

13. What is the chemical name of ordinary table sugar in many Halloween sweets?

14. What change turns heated plain sugar golden-brown for caramel decorations?

15. What gets worked into taffy when a candymaker repeatedly pulls it?

16. Cotton candy is mainly sugar made into what shape?

17. What grows on the string or stick when rock candy is made?

18. What gives well-made fudge its smooth texture?

19. Which acid found in lemons can add a sour zing to Halloween candy?

20. Which plant-based ingredient can set fruit jelly candies into a gel?

21. Which protein commonly gives gummy candies their springy texture?

22. Which part of the licorice plant supplies traditional licorice flavor?

23. What fills the tiny pockets that make marshmallow treats so fluffy?

24. What trapped gas makes popping candy crackle when it dissolves?

25. What is controlled heating and cooling of chocolate to improve shine and snap called?

26. Despite its name, cocoa butter is what kind of ingredient?

27. What makes the holes in crunchy honeycomb candy?

28. How many eyes do most spider species have?

29. Which insect feature is missing from a spider's head?

30. Spider silk is made mostly from which type of material?

31. What must a growing spider periodically shed?

32. What is a spider's silk dragline useful for?

33. Where do newly hatched wolf spiders often ride?

34. What does a diving bell spider keep inside its underwater silk dome?

35. Which description fits the threads in a typical sticky orb web?

36. An owl's eyes are more like what shape than ordinary round eyeballs?

37. The pointy ear tufts on a great horned owl are actually what?

38. How many eyelids protect each of an owl's eyes?

39. What can an owl do with its outer toe?

40. The dusty-looking coating on moth wings is made of tiny what?

41. What is the coiled feeding tube used by many moths called?

42. Compared with many moths, butterflies usually have what at their antenna tips?

43. A black cat's whiskers are specialized versions of what?

44. What makes a cat's eyes shine back when light catches them in the dark?

45. Cats pad along on which part of their feet?

46. Felt for a costume hat is made by matting and pressing what together?

47. Which light, netlike fabric is often used for fluffy costume skirts?

48. Which party-decoration paper has a crinkled surface?

49. What basic combination forms papier-mâché for masks and props?

50. What do artists call a solid dark shape that shows an object's outline?

51. Which reusable cut-out template helps paint the same pumpkin shape again and again?

52. Folding a square of paper into a bat uses which art technique?

53. Which fiber is commonly woven into rough burlap for scarecrow clothes?

54. Cotton used for fluffy costume clouds grows around which plant part?

55. Traditional cellophane treat wrapping is made from which plant substance?

56. How does gentle warming usually affect a traditional chemical glow stick?

57. A decoration shines brightly under ultraviolet light, then stops when that light goes off. What is this?

58. The visible mist in ordinary Halloween fog is mainly made of what?

59. Dry ice used for theatrical fog is the solid form of which gas?

60. What creates the dark shadow of a cardboard bat on a wall?

61. What does nocturnal mean when describing an animal near a Halloween lantern?

62. A crepuscular animal is busiest around which times?

63. During evening twilight, where is the Sun even though the sky still has light?

64. A living creature making its own light through a chemical reaction shows what?

65. A puffball mushroom's dusty-looking puff releases what?

66. What is the hidden network of branching fungal threads under a woodland path called?

67. What makes dew drops appear on grass during a cool evening?

68. How does a typical male cricket make its chirping sound?

69. What helpful job do many woodland fungi do to fallen autumn leaves?

70. What natural growth can make a fairy ring of mushrooms on a lawn?

71. What does the verb hallow, related to Halloween's name, mean?

72. Halloween's month, October, gets its name from a word for which number?

73. Which river runs beside Derry's well-known Halloween celebrations?

74. In which year did Anoka, Minnesota, begin its organized Halloween celebration?

75. Which U.S. city holds the Village Halloween Parade associated with Greenwich Village?