Christian Holidays trivia, the liturgical year in view.

How many days does the season of Lent traditionally last?

1. Twenty-one
2. Thirty
3. Forty
4. Fifty

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry."Matthew 4:1-2

Lent is forty days, mirroring Jesus's wilderness fast. The forty are counted from Ash Wednesday to Easter, traditionally not including Sundays (which remain mini-celebrations of the Resurrection even within the fast). Different traditions count slightly differently, but the forty-day shape is consistent across Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Reformed observance.

What season of the church year, lasting four Sundays before Christmas, marks waiting for Christ's coming?

1. Epiphany
2. Advent
3. Lent
4. Ordinary Time

"Therefore, stay awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come."Mark 13:35

Advent (from Latin adventus, "coming") opens the Christian year. The four Sundays focus on Christ's three-fold coming — in history at Bethlehem, in mystery now in the church, and in glory at the end of the age. The Advent wreath with its four candles (three purple or blue, one rose) is a 19th-century German Lutheran practice that has spread widely across traditions.

Which feast on December 25 celebrates the birth of Christ in Bethlehem?

1. Epiphany
2. Christmas
3. Candlemas
4. Annunciation

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."Luke 2:11 (KJV)

December 25 was fixed as the Western date for Christ's nativity by the 4th century, replacing the Roman feast of Sol Invictus. Most Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate on the same day in their own calendar, but those still on the Julian calendar (notably Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Jerusalem, parts of the Coptic and Ethiopian churches) keep it on January 7. The Armenian Apostolic Church combines Christmas and Epiphany on January 6.

Which Sunday celebrates Christ's resurrection from the dead?

1. Pentecost Sunday
2. Palm Sunday
3. Easter Sunday
4. Trinity Sunday

"He is not here; for he is risen, as he said."Matthew 28:6 (KJV)

Easter (Pascha in Greek and most non-English languages) is the oldest and central Christian feast. The date is calculated by the Council of Nicaea (325) as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox, which is why it moves through March and April. Eastern and Western churches calculate this with different calendars, so Orthodox Easter usually falls a week or several weeks after Western Easter.

On which feast — celebrated on January 6 in the West — do Christians remember the visit of the Magi?

1. Candlemas
2. Annunciation
3. Epiphany
4. Transfiguration

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem."Matthew 2:1 (KJV)

Epiphany (Greek epiphaneia, "manifestation") celebrates Christ's revelation to the nations. In the Latin West the focus is the Magi; in the Christian East — where Epiphany is called Theophany and is the older feast — the focus is Christ's baptism in the Jordan and the manifestation of the Trinity. The "Twelve Days of Christmas" run from December 25 to January 5, Twelfth Night being the eve of Epiphany.

Which Thursday of Holy Week commemorates the Last Supper and Jesus washing the disciples' feet?

1. Spy Wednesday
2. Maundy Thursday
3. Holy Saturday
4. Palm Sunday

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."John 13:34 (KJV)

"Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum novum — "a new commandment" — the words Jesus speaks after washing the disciples' feet in John 13. The day commemorates the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. In the Catholic and Anglican traditions, the bishop celebrates the Chrism Mass on this day, consecrating the oils used in baptism, confirmation, and anointing for the year ahead.

Which Christian feast, falling fifty days after Easter, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles?

1. Ascension
2. Trinity Sunday
3. Pentecost
4. Corpus Christi

"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them."Acts 2:2-3 (KJV)

Pentecost ("fiftieth day") was already a Jewish harvest festival — Shavuot, seven weeks after Passover. On that day in Jerusalem the Spirit descended on the gathered disciples, and three thousand were baptized after Peter's sermon. The day is celebrated as the "birthday of the Church" in Western Christianity; in the East the feast also commemorates the Trinity, with Trinity Sunday following the next day.

Which feast, forty days after Easter, commemorates Christ's return to heaven?

1. Pentecost
2. Ascension
3. Transfiguration
4. All Saints' Day

"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."Acts 1:9 (KJV)

The Ascension is reckoned forty days after Easter — based on Acts 1:3, where Jesus appears to his disciples over that span — and therefore always falls on a Thursday. Many countries with historic Christian establishment (Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, France) still observe it as a public holiday. Some episcopates have transferred the observance to the following Sunday for pastoral reasons.

Which 1st November feast in the Western calendar celebrates all the saints in heaven, known or unknown?

1. Christ the King
2. All Saints' Day
3. Reformation Day
4. Feast of the Cross

"And I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes."Revelation 7:9 (KJV)

All Saints' Day (All Hallows) celebrates the communion of all the redeemed. It is followed on November 2 by All Souls' Day, which prays for all the faithful departed. The Eastern Orthodox commemorate All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost — joining the feast to the Spirit's outpouring that has produced the saints. Halloween (All Hallows' Eve, October 31) is its medieval vigil; in many Protestant churches the day is now also kept as Reformation Day.

In Eastern Orthodox tradition, what is the period of strict fasting that precedes the Nativity Fast and Pascha called?

1. Apostles' Fast
2. Dormition Fast
3. Great Lent
4. Cheesefare

"Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life, for my spirit rises early to thy holy temple, bearing a temple of the body all defiled."Matins hymn, Triodion, sung during the Sundays preceding Great Lent (Byzantine rite)

Great Lent in the Byzantine tradition is the longest and strictest of the four annual fasting periods (the others being the Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast, and Dormition Fast). It begins on Clean Monday — not Ash Wednesday — and culminates in Holy Week and Pascha. Traditional observance excludes meat, dairy, fish, oil, and wine on most days, with mitigations on Saturdays and Sundays.