Autumn quiz questions: harvest, folklore and the science of the season

As the nights draw in and the leaves start turning, autumn hands you a genuinely rich seasonal topic for quiz night. There's the science of why leaves change colour, harvest traditions from three different continents, a Romantic poet's most famous ode, and the small print behind two Thanksgivings held six weeks apart. These ten questions cover a good spread of difficulty and subject matter, so they'll work as a standalone autumn round or scattered through a general knowledge quiz.

The questions

1What is the name of the astronomical event that marks the start of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, when day and night are roughly equal in length?

Answer:The autumnal equinox (also accept September equinox)(click to reveal)

The word "equinox" comes from the Latin for "equal night." In 2026, it falls in the early hours of 23rd September for UK clocks. From that point, the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south and the nights keep drawing in until the winter solstice in December. The Southern Hemisphere gets the opposite deal: their spring starts on the same date. More on the equinox from Royal Museums Greenwich

2Meteorologists use a simpler, fixed-date system for the seasons rather than following the equinoxes and solstices. According to this system, on what date does autumn always begin in the UK?

Answer:1st September(click to reveal)

Meteorological autumn runs from 1st September to 30th November every single year, regardless of what's happening astronomically. Meteorologists prefer fixed dates because it makes it much easier to compare weather statistics and climate data from one year to the next. It also explains why autumn can feel like it's "started" nearly three weeks before the actual equinox arrives. Met Office on when autumn officially starts

3Leaves don't actually turn yellow and orange in autumn. Those colours are there all along, hidden by a different pigment that breaks down as the weather cools. What is that green pigment called?

Answer:Chlorophyll(click to reveal)

Chlorophyll is what plants use to photosynthesise, and it's constantly being produced and replaced during the growing season, which is why leaves look green. As days shorten and temperatures drop, trees stop replenishing it, and the green fades to reveal the yellow and orange carotenoid pigments that were masked underneath the whole time. Red and purple leaves work differently: those colours come from anthocyanins, which are made fresh in autumn when sugars get trapped in the leaf. Wikipedia on autumn leaf colour

4Grey squirrels spend much of autumn burying food for the winter ahead, often digging hundreds of separate small holes rather than one big stash. What is this type of hoarding behaviour called?

Answer:Scatter hoarding (also accept caching)(click to reveal)

Squirrels bury nuts and acorns individually across a wide area, which means that if a rival animal raids one stash, plenty of others stay hidden and safe. Studies have found squirrels are surprisingly picky about it too, favouring their preferred food in the best-hidden spots and relying on memory and smell to find their buried caches again later. It's also one reason new oak trees pop up in unexpected places: not every acorn gets dug back up. Scientific American on squirrels and buried nuts

5Farmers once relied on an unusually bright, early-rising full moon to help them bring in their crops after dark. What is the name given to the full moon that falls closest to the autumn equinox?

Answer:The Harvest Moon(click to reveal)

What makes it special isn't its size or colour but its timing. Around a full moon, moonrise is usually about 50 minutes later each night, but around the Harvest Moon that gap shrinks to just 20 or 25 minutes for several nights in a row. That meant farmers got several evenings of near-continuous moonlight right when they needed it most, at the peak of the harvest. EarthSky on the Harvest Moon

6"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" is the opening line of a famous 1820 ode to the season. Which English Romantic poet wrote it?

Answer:John Keats(click to reveal)

The poem is simply titled "To Autumn," and it's widely considered one of the most technically accomplished poems in the English language. Keats wrote it after a walk near Winchester in September 1819, and it turned out to be the last major poem he completed before he died of tuberculosis just over a year later, aged 25. Poetry Foundation: To Autumn

7Which East Asian festival, held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, is celebrated with mooncakes and family gatherings under the full moon?

Answer:The Mid-Autumn Festival (also called the Moon Festival)(click to reveal)

Because it follows the lunar calendar rather than a fixed Gregorian date, the festival lands somewhere between early September and early October depending on the year; in 2026 it falls on 25th September. Mooncakes, round pastries usually filled with lotus seed paste or sweet bean paste, symbolise the full moon and family unity, and giving them as gifts is a central part of the celebration. Wikipedia on the Mid-Autumn Festival

8Autumn ends, at least in terms of daylight, with the clocks going back an hour and British Summer Time coming to a close. On what day of the week does this always happen: Saturday, Sunday or Monday?

Answer:Sunday (the last Sunday of October, at 2am)(click to reveal)

The change gives everyone an extra hour in bed, at least in theory, and marks the return to Greenwich Mean Time until the clocks spring forward again in March. The UK has used this system since the Summer Time Act of 1916, brought in originally to save fuel during the First World War. GOV.UK on when the clocks change

9One country holds its Thanksgiving holiday in October rather than November, roughly six weeks ahead of its southern neighbour, because its harvest season finishes earlier. Which country is it?

Answer:Canada(click to reveal)

Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, a date fixed by an Act of Parliament in 1957. The holiday shares the same roots as its American counterpart, giving thanks for the harvest, but Canadians tend to treat it as a slightly lower-key long weekend rather than the huge travel and cooking event it is further south. Wikipedia on Thanksgiving (Canada)

10In the United States, Thanksgiving always falls on the same day of the week, no matter the date. Which day is it?

Answer:Thursday (specifically the fourth Thursday of November)(click to reveal)

Abraham Lincoln first proclaimed a national Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War. That arrangement held for decades until Congress fixed it by law in 1941 as the fourth Thursday of November, settling a brief controversy after President Roosevelt had tried shifting it a week earlier to extend the Christmas shopping season. National Archives on Thanksgiving as a federal holiday

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That's a solid spread of autumn trivia, from the science of falling leaves to the folklore behind the Harvest Moon. If you fancy pairing this with another seasonal round, our spring quiz questions cover the opposite end of the year, and our Halloween quiz questions are ready if you want to go a bit spookier once October arrives. Or head over to our quiz creator to build a full autumn-themed quiz night around these questions and more.