What are good Lunar New Year trivia questions?

Good Lunar New Year trivia questions cover more than one country: which animal 2027 belongs to (the Goat), why fish is left on the plate at the reunion dinner (its name sounds like “surplus”), what Korean families eat on Seollal (tteokguk) and what Vietnamese families call lucky money (lì xì). This page has 40 in four rounds of 10, with answers.

What date is Lunar New Year 2027, and which zodiac year begins?

Lunar New Year 2027 falls on Saturday, February 6, in China and Vietnam, and Korea's Seollal is on Sunday, February 7. It begins the Year of the Goat (also translated Sheep or Ram), according to the Hong Kong Observatory's 2027 calendar.

Is it Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year?

Both are used. Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is the celebration in China and Chinese communities. Lunar New Year is the wider name that also includes Korea's Seollal, Vietnam's Tết and other celebrations, so it's the safer choice for a company event.

What else can a team do for Lunar New Year?

Run a trivia round from this page, share a table of lucky foods, or book a hosted workshop such as a tea tasting where every guest gets a kit. Our Lunar New Year activities guide has more food, craft and remote ideas.

Can a host run a Lunar New Year event for a remote team?

Yes. Tea Garden & Tasting is a live-hosted tea tasting where each guest also plants a mini tea garden from a kit shipped to their door, on Zoom by default or Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request. Kit workshops need about 3 weeks for US addresses, or 5 with guests in Canada or abroad.

Trivia
Holidays

40 Lunar New Year trivia questions and answers

Forty Lunar New Year trivia questions with answers, in four rounds of 10: the zodiac, Chinese New Year traditions, lucky foods, and Korea's Seollal and Vietnam's Tết. Each round takes about 10 minutes on a shared screen.

KraftyLab TeamUpdated Nov 20269 min read

See all 40 questions or have a host run it

ZodiacQuestion 1 of 10 · Score 0

How many animals are in the Chinese zodiac?

Say your answer out loud, or write it down, then check it.

Coworkers playing a trivia game around an office table with mandarin oranges, red envelopes and tea, red lanterns by the window

Lunar New Year starts on the new moon between January 21 and February 20. In 2027 it falls on Saturday, February 6, in China and Vietnam and on Sunday, February 7, for Korea's Seollal, and it begins the Year of the Goat (per the Hong Kong Observatory and the Korea Aerospace Administration). These 40 questions cover the traditions of China, Korea and Vietnam, each with a difficulty tag and its answer folded away so a host can share the screen.

Looking for food, crafts and party ideas instead? See our Lunar New Year activities for work.

Round 1: the calendar and the zodiac

When the new year starts, why it moves, and the twelve animals that take turns.

1. How many animals are in the Chinese zodiac?Easy
Show the answer
Twelve
2. Lunar New Year 2027 starts the year of which zodiac animal?Easy
Show the answer
The Goat (also translated Sheep or Ram)
3. Each animal pairs with an element in turn. How many years does it take for the full cycle to repeat?Medium
Show the answer
60 years
4. Lunar New Year always lands on a new moon between which two dates?Medium
Show the answer
January 21 and February 20
5. Which zodiac animal comes right after the Dragon?Easy
Show the answer
The Snake
6. Which animal comes last in the zodiac's cycle of twelve?Easy
Show the answer
The Pig
7. In China, Lunar New Year is also known by which other name?Easy
Show the answer
The Spring Festival
8. What is the name of China's huge holiday travel season around the new year?Hard
Show the answer
Chunyun
9. In the Vietnamese zodiac, which animal takes the Rabbit's place?Medium
Show the answer
The Cat
10. In the Vietnamese zodiac, which animal takes the Ox's place?Medium
Show the answer
The Buffalo (the water buffalo)

Make it a hosted Lunar New Year hour

A trivia round fills 10 minutes. For a February social with remote or hybrid teammates, a hosted kit workshop ships the same supplies to every guest and puts a live host on the call, so the people at home share the table with the office.

Kit workshops need about 3 weeks for US addresses, or about 5 with guests in Canada or abroad. Reserve on any activity page with a 50% deposit, or ask for a full plan within 24 hours.

Get a free quote

Round 2: Chinese New Year traditions

Envelopes, couplets, dances and the biggest TV night of the year.

11. In Mandarin they're hongbao; in Cantonese, lai see. What are they?Easy
Show the answer
Red envelopes (usually with money inside)
12. What are the pairs of poetic lines pasted on either side of a front door called?Medium
Show the answer
Spring couplets
13. The year's most important family meal, the reunion dinner, happens on which night?Easy
Show the answer
New Year's Eve
14. China's Spring Festival Gala airs every New Year's Eve. In what year was it first broadcast?Hard
Show the answer
1983
15. In a traditional Chinese lion dance, how many performers usually make up one lion?Medium
Show the answer
Two (one works the head, one the tail)
16. Which dance uses a long figure held up on poles by a whole team of performers?Easy
Show the answer
The dragon dance
17. “Gung hei fat choy,” a wish for prosperity, is said in which language?Medium
Show the answer
Cantonese (in Mandarin it's gōng xǐ fā cái)
18. Which festival on the 15th day of the first month closes the New Year season?Medium
Show the answer
The Lantern Festival
19. Which US city's Chinese New Year parade traces back to the 1860s?Medium
Show the answer
San Francisco
20. Which household god is traditionally sent off in a ritual in the days before the new year?Hard
Show the answer
The Kitchen God

Two colleagues writing trivia answers on cards during a hybrid video call, with tangerines and tea on the desk

Round 3: Lunar New Year food

Lucky dishes from China, Korea and Vietnam, and the wordplay behind them.

21. Which dish is often left partly uneaten at the reunion dinner, because its name sounds like “surplus”?Medium
Show the answer
Fish
22. Dumplings are folded to look like what, which is why they stand for wealth?Medium
Show the answer
Silver ingots
23. Nian gao, the sticky rice cake, is a pun: its name sounds like a wish for what?Medium
Show the answer
A higher year (a better year than the last)
24. Which sweet glutinous rice balls in soup are eaten at the Lantern Festival?Hard
Show the answer
Tangyuan
25. Besides dumplings, which crispy rolled food is eaten as a symbol of wealth?Easy
Show the answer
Spring rolls
26. Which Korean soup of sliced rice cakes is eaten on Seollal?Medium
Show the answer
Tteokguk
27. In Korea, what are you said to gain when you finish your bowl of tteokguk?Medium
Show the answer
A year of age
28. Which square Vietnamese sticky rice cake is made for Tết?Hard
Show the answer
Bánh chưng
29. Bánh chưng is wrapped in dong leaves. What does its square shape stand for?Hard
Show the answer
The Earth
30. What is the five-fruit tray on a Vietnamese family altar at Tết called?Hard
Show the answer
Mâm ngũ quả

Team spread across cities? In a hosted virtual tea tasting, every guest gets the same kit and tastes along with a live host. Or try a bubble tea workshop: the drink was born in Taiwan in the 1980s, and everyone makes their own on camera.

Round 4: Seollal in Korea and Tết in Vietnam

Bows, games, blossoms and the first guest through the door.

31. What is the deep New Year's bow that Koreans make to their elders called?Medium
Show the answer
Sebae
32. What is the money elders give children after the New Year's bow called in Korea?Hard
Show the answer
Sebaetdon
33. What is the traditional Korean clothing many families wear for Seollal?Easy
Show the answer
Hanbok
34. Which Korean board game, played by throwing four sticks, is a Seollal favorite?Medium
Show the answer
Yutnori
35. What is the ancestral rite Korean families hold on Seollal called?Hard
Show the answer
Charye
36. In 2027, China and Vietnam start the new year on February 6. Why is Korea's Seollal a day later?Hard
Show the answer
The new moon is after midnight in Seoul (Korea's clock is an hour ahead of China's)
37. What is the full Vietnamese name of the Lunar New Year festival?Medium
Show the answer
Tết Nguyên Đán
38. In northern Vietnam, which pink blossom fills homes for Tết?Medium
Show the answer
Peach blossom (in the center and south, it's yellow mai)
39. In Vietnam, the year's first visitor is believed to set the family's luck. What is the custom called?Hard
Show the answer
Xông đất
40. What is the Vietnamese name for lucky money in red envelopes?Medium
Show the answer
Lì xì

How to run Lunar New Year trivia at work

A reader, teams of four to six and about 10 minutes a round, in a conference room or on a call.

Choose your rounds. Each round of 10 takes about 10 minutes with the answers. One round fits a stand-up; all four make a 45-minute February social.
Form teams of four to six. Name each team after a zodiac animal and give it one writer. Spread the people who know the holiday across teams.
In the office: read every question twice, allow 30 seconds, and have each team hold up its answer card at the same time.
Hybrid: seat the reader on camera, make the remote players one team in a breakout room, and take their answers by private chat.
On video: share the quiz at the top of this page, show the answer once every team has typed, then mark it We got it or We missed it.
Finish with the notes. Read the short note after each answer. They carry the details people remember and repeat at lunch.

A prize helps: mandarin oranges for the winning team, or a box from our Lunar New Year corporate gifts for everyone who played.

Lunar New Year 2027 dates and tips for a mixed team

The date depends on where the new moon is reckoned, so it can differ by a day between countries.

ChinaSpring Festival: Saturday, February 6, 2027
VietnamTết Nguyên Đán: Saturday, February 6, 2027
South KoreaSeollal: Sunday, February 7, 2027

Many communities celebrate, not only Chinese ones, so call the event Lunar New Year trivia unless it truly covers one country.
Ask colleagues who celebrate whether they'd like to add a family custom or coach a pronunciation, and take no for an answer.
Customs differ by country, region and family; read the answers as common practice, not the only way.
Accept close spellings and romanizations. Greetings and food names have several.
Skip costumes, accents and props that play on stereotypes. The facts are fun enough.

Planning for May too? AAPI Heritage Month has its own trivia questions, a hosted AAPI heritage trivia game, and more ideas on our heritage month events page.