153 World Cultures Trivia Questions and Answers
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Easy World Cultures Trivia Questions
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What kind of dance is tango?
A paired dance
UNESCO describes tango as a Río de la Plata music and dance tradition performed as a paired dance.
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What is the day after Christmas commonly called in many Commonwealth countries?
Boxing Day
In Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and much of the Caribbean, 26 December is Boxing Day and a public holiday. The name is usually traced to the Christmas boxes of money, food or leftovers handed to servants and tradespeople on the day after Christmas, once they had worked through the holiday itself.
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Which country is most associated with capoeira?
Brazil
Capoeira developed among enslaved Africans and their descendants in Brazil.
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Which Brazilian festival is especially associated with samba parades?
Carnival
Brazil’s Carnival is famous for spectacular samba parades, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where samba schools perform elaborate routines and compete in the Sambadrome.
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In traditional Chinese shadow puppetry, what does the audience watch the shadows on?
A translucent white cloth screen
The audience sits in front of a translucent white cloth stretched on a frame while the puppeteers work behind it, holding the figures against the cloth with a lamp throwing their shadows forward. The puppets themselves are cut from treated animal hide, which is why the Chinese name piyingxi means leather shadow play.
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Merengue is the national music and partner dance of which country?
Dominican Republic
Merengue is the national music and partner dance of the Dominican Republic, driven by accordion, the two-headed tambora drum and the guira. Its quick march-like two-step is easy to pick up on a crowded floor, which is a large part of why it spread across the Caribbean and beyond.
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What Ethiopian tradition is a well-known expression of hospitality?
A coffee ceremony
A host roasts green beans over hot coals, grinds them by hand, and brews the coffee in a clay pot called a jebena, often with frankincense burning alongside. Guests are served three rounds, called abol, tona and bereka, each weaker than the last as the same grounds are reused with fresh water.
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What French national holiday is celebrated on 14 July?
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is France’s national holiday, celebrated each year on 14 July. It commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789, a turning point in the French Revolution.
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Which German festival is traditionally held in Munich?
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest is a large German folk festival associated with Munich and its beer tradition.
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Which dance is strongly associated with modern Greek popular culture?
Sirtaki
Sirtaki is a Greek dance popularized internationally through the film Zorba the Greek.
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What is the Indian tradition of decorating skin with henna called?
Mehndi
Mehndi is the decorative application of henna designs to the skin.
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What is the Indian decorative floor art made from colored powders called?
Rangoli
The powder is traditionally rice flour, chosen partly so ants and birds can eat the leftovers once the pattern fades. Rangoli is redrawn fresh at the threshold each morning or before a festival such as Diwali, to welcome guests and invite the goddess Lakshmi inside.
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Which named Indonesian ensemble is centered on tuned percussion?
Gamelan
UNESCO describes gamelan as a traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra governed by precise tuning systems.
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What material creates the dye-resistant patterns in Indonesian batik?
Hot wax
Batik artisans draw designs with hot wax, which resists subsequent dyes and allows selective coloring of the cloth.
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What event marks the traditional timing of Nowruz?
The spring equinox
Nowruz celebrates the Persian New Year at the spring equinox and is observed across several countries.
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Which country is most associated with reggae?
Jamaica
Reggae developed in Jamaica during the late 1960s.
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What Jamaican cooking style is known for spicy seasoning and grilling?
Jerk
Jerk is a Jamaican cooking style that uses spicy seasoning and grilling, traditionally with allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers.
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Which country is most associated with karaoke's origin?
Japan
Karaoke was developed in Japan during the 1970s.
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Which Japanese theatre tradition is known for stylized makeup and dramatic poses?
Kabuki
Kabuki is a traditional Japanese theatre form known for stylized acting, elaborate costumes and makeup.
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What Japanese art involves folding paper into shapes?
Origami
Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative and often representational shapes. Traditional origami usually begins with a single square sheet and uses folds rather than cutting or gluing.
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What object is traditionally lit during Hanukkah?
Menorah
During Hanukkah, Jewish families light a menorah, adding one candle each night. A ninth candle, called the shamash, is used to light the others.
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Which traditional garment is Korean?
Hanbok
Hanbok is the traditional dress of Korea: a short wrapped jacket called a jeogori worn over a full chima skirt or baji trousers. It is still worn for weddings, holidays and first-birthday celebrations.
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Which Portuguese city is most associated with traditional fado?
Lisbon
Fado developed as an urban musical tradition especially associated with Lisbon.
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What is Malaysian wayang kulit?
Shadow puppetry
Malaysia's National Heritage Department identifies Wayang Kulit Kelantan as a Malaysian Malay shadow-puppet theatre tradition.
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What colorful object is traditionally broken at many Mexican celebrations?
Piñata
A piñata is a decorated container broken during celebrations, especially in Mexican traditions.
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What plant is traditionally hung at Christmas for a kiss?
mistletoe
Mistletoe is traditionally hung during Christmas celebrations as a kissing custom.
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What is commonly placed inside red envelopes at Chinese New Year?
money
Red envelopes traditionally contain money during Chinese New Year.
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What is a Mongolian ger?
A portable round dwelling
A ger is a portable circular dwelling with a lattice frame and felt covering, suited to mobile pastoral life.
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What beverage is a familiar part of Moroccan hospitality?
Mint tea
Mint tea is a traditional and welcoming part of Moroccan hospitality. It is often prepared with green tea, fresh mint, and sugar, then poured from a height to create a light froth.
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Where did jazz originate?
New Orleans
Jazz originated in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emerging from a blend of African rhythms, blues, ragtime, and other musical traditions. The city’s vibrant cultural mix helped shape jazz into a uniquely improvisational style.
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Maori kapa haka brings together which three things?
Song, dance and chant
Kapa haka is Maori performing art: kapa means rank or row, and groups stand in lines to perform haka, action songs, poi and chant together, the words carrying whakapapa and history. It is taught in schools throughout New Zealand and competed at national festivals.
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On what date is Halloween celebrated?
October 31
Halloween is observed annually on October 31.
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What are the huge ground drawings in Peru's Nazca desert called?
Geoglyphs
The Nazca Lines are geoglyphs, which are large designs made on the desert surface by removing or rearranging stones.
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Before pumpkins, what vegetable was hollowed out and carved into faces in Ireland and Scotland?
Turnip
Pumpkins are the modern standard, but the custom began in Ireland and Scotland with hollowed turnips carved into faces and set out at Halloween. Irish emigrants found the larger, softer American squash easier to carve, and the pumpkin stuck.
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Which platform popularized the “Ask Me Anything” format?
Reddit
Reddit popularized the Ask Me Anything interview format.
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What is the common name for Russian nesting dolls?
Matryoshka
Russian nesting dolls are called matryoshka dolls. Each wooden doll contains a smaller doll inside, and the name comes from the traditional Russian women’s name Matryona.
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Which app first launched 24-hour disappearing posts?
Snapchat
The format launched as 'Stories' in 2013, letting users compile posts into a montage that stays visible for 24 hours before vanishing. That differs from the app's original individual snaps, which disappeared within seconds of being opened.
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Which country is most associated with flamenco?
Spain
Flamenco developed in Andalusia and is strongly associated with Spain.
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What vocal style uses rapid changes between chest and head voice?
Yodeling
Yodeling uses rapid changes in vocal register and is associated with Alpine traditions.
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What is Songkran?
A Thai New Year festival
UNESCO describes Songkran as Thailand's traditional New Year festival, including family observances and water pouring.
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Which vegetable and which flower are traditional national emblems of Wales?
The leek and the daffodil
The leek is the older symbol, worn by Welsh soldiers in battle. The daffodil grew popular later, helped by both being called cenhinen in Welsh.
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What is the official state emblem of Ireland?
The harp
The design is modeled on the Trinity College harp, a fourteenth or fifteenth century instrument still kept at Trinity College Dublin. Guinness trademarked the same harp in 1862, so when the state adopted it in 1922 the image had to be flipped, making the two logos mirror images of each other.
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Which beverage is prepared by boiling fine grounds in a small pot?
Turkish coffee
Turkish coffee is traditionally prepared by boiling very finely ground coffee in a small pot without filtering.
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Which social-media platform first popularized the hashtag?
Twitter
Chris Messina introduced the hashtag convention on Twitter in 2007.
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In which country did hip-hop culture emerge?
United States
Hip-hop emerged in the Bronx, New York City, during the 1970s.
Medium World Cultures Trivia Questions
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Pouring coffee for guests from a long-spouted brass pot is a hospitality ritual on UNESCO's heritage list. Which region's tradition is it?
The Arabian Peninsula
Arabic coffee is lightly roasted, scented with cardamom and served from a long-spouted pot called a dallah into small handleless cups. Offering it is the opening gesture of hospitality across the Gulf, and UNESCO added the practice to its intangible cultural heritage list in 2015.
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Which masked, horned Alpine figure traditionally walks with Saint Nicholas on the evening of 5 December?
Krampus
Krampus parades through Austrian and Bavarian towns on Krampusnacht, 5 December, with horns, fur and a birch switch for badly behaved children, while Saint Nicholas rewards the good ones the next morning. The similar-looking Perchten belong to a different season, the twelve nights between Christmas and Epiphany.
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What is the national sport of Bhutan?
Archery
Archery has been Bhutan's national sport since 1971. Targets stand around 145 metres apart, far beyond Olympic range, and teams sing and dance to put off the opposing archer while he shoots.
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What activity marks China's Duanwu Festival?
Dragon-boat racing
China’s Duanwu Festival is famously marked by dragon-boat racing, with teams paddling long, narrow boats in unison. The festival also honors the ancient poet Qu Yuan, and zongzi rice dumplings are traditionally eaten.
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Mole poblano, the dark sauce from the Mexican state of Puebla, famously combines chilies with which ingredient?
Chocolate
Mole poblano blends chilies, spices, nuts and seeds with a small amount of chocolate, which deepens the colour and rounds out the flavour rather than making the sauce sweet.
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The Barranquilla Carnival, famous for its masked characters, is held in which country?
Colombia
Barranquilla, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, holds its carnival over the four days before Ash Wednesday and is best known for costumed characters such as the Marimonda, a mask with a drooping trunk and huge ears invented to mock the city's upper classes.
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What is the small clay oil lamp lit at Diwali called?
A diya
A diya is a shallow clay lamp filled with oil or ghee and lit with a twist of cotton wick. Rows of them are set along doorways, walls and windowsills at Diwali, the festival of lights, as a symbol of light overcoming darkness.
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Which Dominican music and dance style grew out of bolero and is built around the guitar?
Bachata
Bachata grew out of Cuban-influenced bolero in the Dominican countryside in the mid-20th century, built on guitar, bongo and the scraped metal guira. Dismissed for decades as music of the rural poor and barely played on the radio, it broke into the mainstream in the 1990s and is now danced worldwide.
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What are traditional Dutch wooden shoes called?
Klompen
Klompen is the Dutch term for traditional wooden shoes.
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Which language is official in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country?
English
English was kept as a neutral official language because Nigeria has more than 500 indigenous languages, with Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo the largest.
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Which international song contest began in 1956?
Eurovision Song Contest
The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1956.
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Which country is associated with the development of parkour?
France
Parkour was developed in France and influenced by Georges Hébert's physical-training system.
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The country of Georgia, in the Caucasus, is known for which vocal tradition?
Polyphonic singing
Georgian folk song is built from three independent vocal lines rather than a tune with accompaniment, and each region has its own version: dense Gurian songs with a yodel-like krimanchuli part on top, slow Kakhetian table songs over a held drone. UNESCO recognised the tradition in 2001.
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Which country's bakers have registered more than 3,000 distinct kinds of bread with their national bread institute?
Germany
The German Bread Institute keeps a register of recognised bread varieties that has passed 3,000 entries, from rye sourdoughs to pumpernickel and hundreds of regional rolls. German bread culture was added to the country's own national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2014.
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Which West African country is especially associated with the kente cloth tradition?
Ghana
Kente is a brightly coloured strip-woven cloth associated above all with the Akan peoples of Ghana, where it was long reserved for royalty and ceremonial dress.
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What are tiny handmade figures traditionally kept beneath a pillow?
Worry dolls
Guatemalan legend credits the practice to a Maya princess, Ixmucane, who received a gift from the sun god that let her solve any worry a person could have. The dolls are traditionally sold in sets of six, small enough to fit in a matchbox-sized case.
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In traditional hula kahiko, the dancers' movements are performed to what?
A chanted poem
Hula kahiko is danced to mele, chanted poetry delivered by a chanter who keeps time on a gourd or a shark-skin drum. The dancers' hands and body carry the meaning of the words, which is how genealogies and stories of gods such as Pele were held and passed on.
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Which two languages are official at the national level in India?
Hindi and English
The constitution also recognises 22 scheduled languages used at state level, and India has no single national language.
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What is the Kumbh Mela?
A pilgrimage gathering
Kumbh Mela is a major Hindu pilgrimage gathering held at rotating locations in India.
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Which Indian classical dance is known for rhythmic footwork and spins?
Kathak
Kathak is an Indian classical dance tradition featuring storytelling, rhythmic footwork and turns.
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What is an inuksuk?
A stone route marker
The word means roughly 'to act in the capacity of a human', an extension of inuk, meaning person, since the stacked stones stand in for one where no landmark exists. One appears on the flag of Nunavut, and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics based its official logo, Ilanaaq, on the same shape.
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Which Irish gathering is an evening of social group dancing?
A céilí
A céilí is a dance with set figures and a caller who walks everyone through them, so beginners can join in. A fleadh is a music festival, a feis a competition, and a seisiún an informal session in a pub.
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Ireland has two official languages. Which one does the constitution name as the first?
Irish
The constitution names Irish as the first official language and English as the second, though English is far more widely spoken day to day.
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What is the Japanese practice of furoshiki used for?
Wrapping and carrying items
Furoshiki is the Japanese art of wrapping and carrying items with cloth, including as an alternative to disposable wrapping materials.
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What is Japanese calligraphy called?
Shodō
Shodō means 'the way of writing'. The calligrapher grinds an ink stick against a wet stone and paints the characters with a bamboo-handled brush, and the balance and rhythm of the strokes count for as much as their legibility.
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What Japanese term names the traditional tea ceremony?
Chanoyu
Chanoyu, literally tea water, refers to the Japanese way of preparing and serving tea as a cultural practice.
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Which holiday is associated with a kinara?
Kwanzaa
The kinara holds seven candles, three red, three green and one black in the center, one lit on each day of the week-long holiday to mark one of the seven principles, or Nguzo Saba. The holiday itself was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga.
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What facial contact is associated with a Māori hongi greeting?
Nose and forehead contact
In the hongi two people press noses and foreheads together and share a breath. The gesture is understood as an exchange of the breath of life, and it is what turns a visitor into one of the hosts' own people rather than an outsider.
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During Mexico's Day of the Dead, which of these is the altar built to hold offerings for deceased relatives?
Ofrenda
An ofrenda is the home altar raised for Día de Muertos, stacked with photographs, candles, marigolds and the food and drink the dead person liked in life. The offerings are meant to guide and reward the returning visitor, not to be eaten by the living.
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Which Highland Games implement is tossed end-over-end, landing with its narrow end away from the thrower?
Caber
The caber is a tapered log, often around five metres long. The thrower carries it upright holding the narrow end, then tosses it so it turns end over end. A perfect throw lands it pointing straight away from the thrower, the 12 o'clock position.
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In South African public discourse, what idea does ubuntu often express?
Human interconnectedness
Ubuntu comes from the Nguni saying umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, a person is a person through other people, and is usually glossed in English as 'I am because we are'. It became a public touchstone after apartheid, running through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's language of repairing relationships rather than only punishing.
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Kandyan dance is a traditional performing art of which country?
Sri Lanka
Kandyan dance comes from the hill country around Kandy in central Sri Lanka, where it grew out of temple ritual and the royal court. Dancers perform to the double-headed geta bera drum in beaded chest plates and silver headdresses, and the style is still the centrepiece of the Esala Perahera procession.
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The steelpan is the national instrument of which country?
Trinidad and Tobago
The steelpan, also called the steel drum, is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
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Which dance-music genre emerged in Detroit during the 1980s?
Techno
Detroit techno developed in Detroit during the 1980s.
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Which flower is the emblem of the Japanese imperial family?
The chrysanthemum
The sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum is the imperial seal, which is why the throne itself is called the Chrysanthemum Throne.
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Which bird is the national symbol of France, appearing on sports shirts and weather vanes?
The rooster
The link comes from a Latin pun: gallus means both 'rooster' and 'inhabitant of Gaul'. The bird became a symbol of the Revolution alongside Marianne and the tricolour, though Napoleon rejected it for the more powerful-looking imperial eagle. The Third Republic brought it back, and it still perches on the gate of the Elysee Palace.
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Which large flower is the national flower of South Africa?
The king protea
The king protea has the largest flower head of its genus, and gives its name to South Africa's cricket team.
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Which prickly plant is the national flower of Scotland?
The thistle
Legend says a barefoot Norse raider stepped on one and cried out, waking the Scots and saving them from a night attack.
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A Ukrainian pysanka is an egg decorated by which method?
Drawing in hot wax, then dyeing
A pysanka is made by drawing on the shell with hot beeswax and dipping the egg into a series of dyes, lightest first. Wax seals whatever it covers, so each colour is locked in before the next bath, and melting the wax off at the end reveals the full pattern of symbolic motifs.
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What does UNESCO stand for?
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCO is the UN agency behind the World Heritage list, which protects sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance.
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What is the traditional West African title for an oral historian and praise singer?
Griot
A griot is a West African oral historian, storyteller, musician, and praise singer who preserves a community’s history and traditions. Griots traditionally pass knowledge from generation to generation through spoken performance and song.
Hard World Cultures Trivia Questions
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Among Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, what is a potlatch?
A ceremonial feast where the host gives away great quantities of goods
A potlatch marks an occasion such as a marriage or a succession by feasting guests and distributing wealth, which confirms the host's rank. Canada banned the practice from 1885 until 1951.
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What is a Māori pōwhiri?
A formal welcoming ceremony
A pōwhiri is the formal welcome onto a marae, moving through calls, speeches, song and a greeting that brings visitors and hosts together.
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In Aboriginal Australian tradition, what is a songline?
A sung route across country
The songs trace the routes ancestral beings travelled during the Dreaming, encoding landmarks, waterholes and law in a form that can be sung, and sometimes walked, by later generations.
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The xhubleta, a stiff pleated bell-shaped skirt hung from the shoulders by straps, belongs to the traditional dress of which country?
Albania
The xhubleta is a bell-shaped felted wool skirt worn by women in the northern Albanian highlands, built from strips joined into as many as seventeen panels. UNESCO listed the craft as heritage in urgent need of safeguarding in 2022.
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What is the ie, a traditional garment in Romanian folk dress?
An embroidered blouse
The ie is a white blouse whose embroidery, especially the band across the shoulder, varies by region. UNESCO inscribed the tradition in 2022.
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What is a Moroccan riad traditionally organized around?
An interior courtyard
A riad turns its back on the street and faces inward onto a private courtyard, usually planted or built around a fountain. The name comes from the Arabic for gardens.
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What are the geometric designs traced in sand by Lunda-Cokwe storytellers in Angola called?
Sona
Sona are drawn by running a fingertip in one continuous line around a grid of dots pressed into the sand, usually while telling a story or passing on a proverb. Mathematicians have since studied them for the rules governing which grids can be covered by a single unbroken line.
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What is an Armenian khachkar?
A carved stone cross
Khachkars are Armenian carved stone monuments centered on a cross motif and intricate ornament.
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Azerbaijani mugham, an improvised modal song tradition, is classically sung to the accompaniment of which pair of instruments?
The tar and the kamancha
A mugham trio is a singer, usually beating a frame drum, backed by a tar, the long-necked plucked lute that is Azerbaijan's national instrument, and a bowed kamancha. UNESCO lists mugham as intangible cultural heritage.
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What is Bangladeshi jamdani?
Fine woven muslin
Jamdani is a handwoven textile tradition known for intricate motifs worked into fine muslin.
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What Filipino communal tradition is symbolized by neighbors cooperating to move a house or complete a difficult task?
Bayanihan
Bayanihan means community cooperation and mutual help, and is pictured in the classic image of villagers shouldering a stilt house to a new site.
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Which Yoruba masquerade tradition honours elderly women, known as "our mothers"?
Gelede masquerade
Gelede is performed by Yoruba communities in Benin, Nigeria and Togo to honour the spiritual power of elderly women and female ancestors, addressed as "our mothers". Pairs of male dancers perform in carved headdresses that satirise everyday life, and UNESCO added the tradition to its heritage lists in 2001.
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Saya is a music and dance tradition of the Afro-descendant communities of which country?
Bolivia
Saya belongs to the Afro-Bolivian communities of the Yungas valleys north-east of La Paz, descendants of Africans enslaved to work the silver mines of Potosi. It is driven by a line of hand drums, with call-and-response singing and dancers moving in two facing columns.
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Which country recognises 37 official languages, more than any other?
Bolivia
Bolivia's 2009 constitution granted official status to Spanish and 36 indigenous languages, including Quechua, Aymara and Guarani.
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What is the Chinese folk art of paper cutting called?
Jianzhi
Jianzhi is the Chinese tradition of decorative paper cutting.
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Zaouli is a masked dance of the Guro people of which West African country?
Côte d'Ivoire
Zaouli is performed by the Guro communities of central Côte d'Ivoire: a carved wooden mask topped with figures, a raffia costume, and footwork so fast the dancer's feet blur, all driven by flute and drums. UNESCO added it to its intangible cultural heritage list in 2017.
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In Cuban rumba, which family of hand drums carries the low, middle and lead parts?
Congas
Rumba is built on three tumbadoras, known outside Cuba as congas: the low salidor holds the pulse, the middle tres dos answers it, and the high quinto improvises against the dancers, all over the clave pattern.
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What Turkish art decorates paper with paints floated on water to create marble-like patterns?
Ebru
In ebru the artist draws patterns in pigments floating on a thickened water bath, then lifts the design onto paper in a single sheet.
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New Zealand has two official languages by statute. Which pair?
Maori and New Zealand Sign Language
Maori was made official in 1987 and New Zealand Sign Language in 2006. English never was, because it did not need to be: it is the de facto language everywhere.
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In a traditional Fijian men's war meke, which weapons do the dancers brandish?
Clubs and spears
The men's war meke re-enacts battle, so the dancers carry what they would have fought with: the wooden club, or i wau, above all, along with spears. The club was the signature Fijian weapon, carved in dozens of forms and now filling museum cases worldwide.
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What kind of instrument is the Finnish kantele?
Zither
The kantele is Finland's national instrument, a plucked box zither: its strings run straight across a flat soundbox, with no neck and no pillar, which is exactly what separates a zither from a guitar or a harp. In the Kalevala the hero Väinämöinen builds the first one from the jawbone of a giant pike.
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Which French tradition trains a young craftsman by sending him around the country for years, working under a different master and lodging in a fellowship house at each stop?
Compagnonnage
Compagnonnage sends an apprentice on a tour of France lasting several years, working in a new workshop at each stage and living in a compagnon house run by the fellowship. It ends when he presents a masterpiece and is received as a compagnon. Stonemasons, carpenters, joiners, roofers and bakers all still train this way.
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What is a traditional Georgian feast called?
Supra
A tamada, or toastmaster, does not just propose the toasts but composes them on the spot, speaking for minutes at a time on themes like friendship or memory. The word supra itself translates to tablecloth, and the feast can mark anything from a wedding to a funeral.
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What are Ghanaian adinkra traditionally used as?
Printed symbols on cloth
Adinkra cloth uses stamped symbols that convey proverbs, values and ideas.
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Greek Karagiozis performances tell their stories using what?
Flat figures behind a lit screen
A single puppeteer voices and moves every jointed cutout figure against the backlit screen, and traditionally carves the figures and writes the script as well. Karagiozis himself is a poor, barefoot trickster who repeatedly outwits the Ottoman officials ruling over him.
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In the Mariana Islands, what were the ancient Chamorro latte stones used for?
Holding up raised houses
Latte stones are stone pillars topped by bowl-shaped capstones, set in two parallel rows to carry the floor of a house above the ground. Sets of them still stand in Guam and the northern Marianas, and the shape has become an emblem of Chamorro identity.
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In Hawaiian cooking, what is the traditional underground oven called?
Imu
An imu is a pit lined with heated stones in which food, wrapped in leaves and covered over, steams for hours. The Māori hangi and Fijian lovo are the equivalents elsewhere in the Pacific.
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What kind of performance is Chhau, of eastern India?
A masked dance tradition
Chhau is danced in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, acting out episodes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and local legend through martial, acrobatic movement. Its Seraikella and Purulia styles are performed in large painted masks, the feature the tradition is known for, and UNESCO added it to its intangible heritage list in 2010.
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What Indonesian tradition uses puppets to tell stories?
Wayang
UNESCO identifies Wayang as Indonesian puppet theatre used to convey stories and cultural values.
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What is distinctive about the Irish singing tradition sean-nós?
It is sung solo and unaccompanied
Sean-nós means 'old style': a solo, heavily ornamented song, usually in the Irish language and sung without any instruments behind it. Listeners often take the singer's hand rather than clap along.
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What happens at a Japanese summer nagashi-somen gathering?
Diners catch noodles from a water chute
The dish began in 1955 at a restaurant near Takachiho Gorge in Miyazaki, where the owner sent cooled noodles shooting down a split bamboo flume using water from the falls. Diners now catch their share with chopsticks before it slides past, then dip it in a chilled sauce.
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What kind of instrument is the Kazakh dombra?
Lute
The dombra is a long-necked, two-stringed lute central to Kazakh musical traditions.
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What Japanese repair technique highlights cracks in broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold?
Kintsugi
Kintsugi mends cracked ceramics with lacquer and dusts the seams with gold, treating the break as part of the object's history instead of hiding it.
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What is a Kyrgyz elechek?
A wrapped female headdress
UNESCO describes elechek as a long white fabric wrapped around the head like a turban, with embroidery, ribbons and jewellery.
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Which fan-shaped plant, an emblem of Madagascar and known as the traveller's tree, has leaves and stalks traditionally used to build houses?
Ravenala
The traveller's tree, Ravenala madagascariensis, grows its huge paddle-shaped leaves in a single flat fan and is a national emblem of Madagascar. On the island's east coast one plant supplies a whole house: flattened leaf stalks are pinned together for the walls, split trunks make the floor, and the folded leaves are stitched into roof tiles.
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Among the Tumbuka people of northern Malawi, what kind of tradition is Vimbuza?
A healing dance
Vimbuza is a healing dance of the Tumbuka of northern Malawi. Drumming and song are used to call up the spirit held to be causing an illness so that a healer can work with it, and the patient dances until the affliction is brought under control. UNESCO lists it as intangible cultural heritage.
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Singapore has four official languages. Which one is its national language?
Malay
English is the language of government and school, but Malay is the national language, and the anthem is sung in it.
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What kind of instrument is the West African kora?
A harp-lute
The kora is a West African string instrument with a calabash resonator, used by hereditary jeli musicians.
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What is a Māori marae?
A communal meeting place
A marae is a Māori community complex used for gatherings, ceremonies and hospitality.
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Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 and often called the world's oldest continuously operating university, is in which country?
Morocco
Al-Qarawiyyin began as a mosque and school founded by Fatima al-Fihri in Fez, Morocco, and has taught continuously ever since.
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Which Moroccan music tradition has roots in West African and Islamic practice?
Gnawa
Gnawa music was carried into Morocco by people taken from West Africa and fused there with Sufi Islamic ritual. It runs on the low three-string guembri and clattering iron qraqeb castanets, played through all-night lila ceremonies, and UNESCO added it to its heritage list in 2019.
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In Myanmar's yun lacquerware, how is the decoration put on?
Fine lines are incised into the surface and filled with coloured lacquer
Yun is engraved lacquerware. Once a dozen or more coats of lacquer have been built up over a bamboo or horsehair frame and polished smooth, the craftsman cuts hair-thin lines into the surface with a metal stylus, rubs coloured lacquer into the grooves, then polishes the surface back so only the filled lines show. Every extra colour means another full round of incising, filling and polishing, so a good piece can take months.
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What are Diné weaving traditions known for?
Woven blankets and rugs
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian documents Diné weaving of wool blankets and rugs as a continuing cultural tradition.
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In traditional Kathmandu art, a paubha belongs to which category?
A religious scroll painting
A paubha is a religious scroll painting from the Kathmandu Valley, traditionally created for Buddhist or Hindu devotional use.
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What material is especially associated with Nok sculpture?
Terracotta
Nok archaeological sculpture is especially known for fired terracotta figures and heads.
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What are traditional Norwegian folk costumes commonly called?
Bunad
Traditional Norwegian folk costumes are commonly called bunad. Many bunads reflect the wearer’s region through distinctive fabrics, colors, embroidery, and accessories.
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Pacific tapa cloth is beaten from the inner bark of which tree?
Paper mulberry
Strips of inner bark are cut from young paper mulberry saplings, soaked until soft, then beaten for hours with a grooved wooden mallet until each strip spreads into a sheet many times its original width. The sheets are felted or pasted together and decorated with dyes and stamps. The cloth is called tapa across much of the Pacific, kapa in Hawaii and ngatu in Tonga.
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Which craft sits at the centre of community life on Peru's Taquile Island?
Weaving and knitting cloth
On Taquile, in Lake Titicaca, the cloth is the island's social code. Men knit the fine caps whose colour and manner of wearing announce whether the wearer is married or single, and women weave the wide belts that carry local symbols and the farming year. UNESCO recognised the tradition in 2005.
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In the Philippines, what is a pamaypay?
A hand fan
A pamaypay is a hand fan, the everyday answer to tropical heat: plain ones are plaited from buri or nipa palm, dress ones are silk on carved wood. It is also called an abaniko, and folk dances built around the fan turn its snapping and fluttering into choreography.
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Which of these traditional song forms comes from Romania?
Doina
The form is unmetered and improvised, allowing a performer to stretch or compress phrases freely instead of keeping steady time. It exists both as a vocal lament of longing or heartbreak and as an instrumental solo, often played on the fluier, a Romanian shepherd's flute.
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In Samoan custom, who delivers the formal lāuga speech at a ceremony?
A titled chief
Samoan life is organised by fa'amatai, the chiefly system, in which an extended family bestows its titles on a matai who then speaks and decides on its behalf. Formal oratory belongs to the matai, and above all to the tulāfale, the talking chiefs who specialise in ceremonial speech.
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Sardinia's traditional canto a tenore is sung by a group of how many men?
Four
Canto a tenore is a shepherds' song performed by four men standing in a tight circle. One voice, the boche, carries the words while the bassu, contra and mesu voche behind him produce the deep guttural drone the style is famous for. UNESCO added it to its heritage lists in 2005.
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Under the Act of Parliament that protects it, how must genuine Harris Tweed be made?
Handwoven by islanders at their own homes in the Outer Hebrides
The Harris Tweed Act of 1993 requires the cloth to be made from pure virgin wool, dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides, and handwoven by the islanders at their own homes. Every finished length is inspected and stamped with the Orb mark, and it is the only fabric in the world with its own Act of Parliament.
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Laamb, the contest that fills Senegal's biggest stadiums, is a form of which sport?
Wrestling
Laamb is Senegal's traditional wrestling, and its top fighters are national celebrities. In the most popular version, wrestlers may also strike with bare fists, and a bout ends the moment one of them is put to the ground. Bouts open with long mystical preparations, drumming and dancing in the ring.
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The Serbian folk dance kolo takes its name from which word?
Wheel
Kolo means wheel. Dancers link hands or hold each other's belts and move as one ring, which may be closed or left open at one end, usually to accordion or brass band accompaniment at weddings and village celebrations.
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What are Catalan castells?
A human tower
Teams called colles build the tower over a thick human base, the pinya, which cushions any fall. A child called the anxaneta always completes the climb, reaching the top and raising a hand before the structure is taken apart. UNESCO listed the tradition as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010.
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Which classical music tradition, built on a cycle of six modes, is shared by Tajik and Uzbek musicians?
Shashmaqom
Shashmaqom takes its name from the six maqoms, or modes, that organise it, and pairs sung poetry with lutes, frame drum and spike fiddle. It grew up in the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand and is recognised by UNESCO as shared Tajik and Uzbek heritage.
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Which East African cloth can carry a proverb or message?
Kanga
The V&A describes Kanga as an East African printed cotton cloth that often carries a Kiswahili proverb or message.
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What does a Japanese torii gate traditionally mark?
The entrance to a Shinto shrine
A torii stands at the approach to a Shinto shrine, marking the passage from ordinary ground into sacred space.
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In Tibetan Buddhism, what is a thangka?
A scroll painting
A thangka is painted on cotton or silk and mounted in a brocade surround with a dowel at the bottom, so it can be rolled up and carried. Travelling teachers unrolled them to show deities, mandalas or the wheel of life, and they hang in temples as a focus for meditation.
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Tonga's lakalaka, performed by entire villages, combines which two art forms?
Dance and sung speeches
Lakalaka is regarded as Tonga's national dance. Rows of villagers, men on one side and women on the other, perform restrained synchronised movements while singing poetry composed for the occasion, praising chiefs and recounting history. UNESCO lists it as intangible cultural heritage.
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What architectural product is Iznik especially known for?
Ceramic tiles
Iznik is especially known for its ceramic tiles, often decorated with vivid colors and intricate floral motifs. Creating them could require multiple firings to achieve the clarity of their designs.
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Turkmenistan's flag carries a vertical stripe of five medallion designs taken from which craft?
Carpet weaving
The stripe shows five guls, the medallion motifs of the five major Turkmen tribes, each tribe having its own hand-knotted carpet pattern. Turkmen carpets are the country's best-known craft, and Turkmenistan marks a national carpet day each year.
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What is Uruguayan candombe?
A drumming and dance tradition
Candombe is an Afro-Uruguayan cultural expression centered on drums, dance and neighborhood processions.
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What technique creates many Uzbek adras patterns?
Ikat dyeing
Many Uzbek adras patterns are created with ikat dyeing, in which sections of the threads are bound and dyed before weaving. The pattern emerges as the prepared threads are woven together.
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What object is characteristic of Đông Sơn culture?
Bronze drums
Đông Sơn archaeological culture is renowned for decorated bronze drums.
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What Moroccan tilework is built from small pieces hand-cut from glazed tiles and fitted into geometric patterns?
Zellige
Zellige craftsmen chip individual shapes from fired glazed tiles by hand, then set them face down into a mosaic that is grouted from behind.
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