Halloween office quiz

Samhain

Fun fact: Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter. Celtic people believed that spirits walked the Earth during the festival.

Eve

Also accepted: Even, Evening

Fun fact: The evening before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows' Eve, and later simply Halloween.

False

Fun fact: Irish families carved turnips. Immigrants took the tradition to North America, where pumpkins were a bigger and easier canvas.

A fruit

Fun fact: A pumpkin grows from a flower and holds seeds, so botanists class it as a fruit. It belongs to the same plant family as squash and zucchini.

• Dracula → Bram Stoker
• Frankenstein → Mary Shelley
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow → Washington Irving
• The Raven → Edgar Allan Poe

Fun fact: Mary Shelley began Frankenstein during a ghost-story challenge among friends in 1816.

1. Celts celebrate Samhain
2. 1 November becomes All Saints' Day
3. Frankenstein is published
4. John Carpenter's film Halloween is released

Fun fact: The Celts celebrated Samhain thousands of years ago. Pope Gregory III chose 1 November in the 8th century, Frankenstein came out in 1818 and Carpenter's Halloween in 1978.

Loch Ness

Fun fact: Tales of a beast in the loch go back to a 7th-century biography of St Columba, set in AD 565.

True

Fun fact: Vlad III ruled Wallachia, now part of Romania, on and off between 1448 and 1476. Bram Stoker's Count Dracula is said to have drawn on him.

Golem

Also accepted: The golem, A golem

Fun fact: The best-known legend says Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague made one from clay to protect his community.

The banshee

Fun fact: Her scream is said to warn of a death close to the listener. Tradition links banshees to old Irish families such as the O'Neills and O'Briens.

True

Fun fact: Only three of roughly 1,200 bat species are true vampire bats. All of them live in the Americas.

Order of the Dragon

Fun fact: Vlad II was given the name Dracul, meaning dragon, after joining the Order. Dracula means son of Dracul.

Boris Karloff

Fun fact: The opening cast list credited the monster to a question mark. Karloff's name replaced it in the end credits.

Alfred Hitchcock

Fun fact: Hitchcock refused press screenings and had cinemas stop latecomers entering once the film had started.

1. Nosferatu
2. Psycho
3. The Exorcist
4. Scream

Fun fact: Nosferatu came out in 1922, Psycho in 1960, The Exorcist in 1973 and Scream in 1996.

False

Fun fact: Henry Selick directed it. Tim Burton produced it and created the story it is based on.

• The Exorcist → William Friedkin
• Scream → Wes Craven
• The Shining → Stanley Kubrick
• Get Out → Jordan Peele

Fun fact: Kubrick shot The Shining at Elstree Studios in England, and Jack Nicholson spent thirteen months before the cameras.

Alien

Also accepted: Alien (1979)

Fun fact: Alien won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

False

Fun fact: Spiders are arachnids, with eight legs, two main body sections and no antennae.

carotene

Also accepted: beta-carotene

Fun fact: Beta-carotene is a plant carotenoid that the body converts to vitamin A.

True

Fun fact: As of the 2025 USDA figures, Illinois produced about 533 million pounds, slightly more than the four next biggest states combined.

1880s

Fun fact: When farmers made up about half of the US workforce, confectioners moulded sweets into the shapes of pumpkins, turnips and other farm produce.

Philadelphia

Fun fact: George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company is reported to have invented it. The Goelitz company later marketed it as "chicken feed".

• Fruit: Tomato, Cucumber
• Root: Carrot, Turnip
• Leaf: Lettuce, Spinach

Fun fact: Tomatoes and cucumbers grow from flowers, so botanists class them as fruits. Carrots and turnips are roots, while lettuce and spinach are leaves.