These spring trivia questions are about the season, for a table of adults: where the word spring comes from, which flowers open before their leaves, why a robin's egg is blue, and how spring is welcomed from Zurich to Canberra.
Read the full guide
Five rounds on the season
The equinox and the calendar has the word spring, Imbolc and Lichun. Flowers and trees in bloom runs from snowdrops to the cherry blossom front. Eggs, nests and migration has robins, swallows and the spring peeper. Rain, rainbows and the thaw covers hail, mud season and the angle of a rainbow. Spring customs around the world goes from April's fish to Songkran.
Free printable spring trivia questions and answers
A tap on a choice shows the answer and its reason. After ten questions the card offers Print question sheet, a sheet of 20. Open More options there for Topic, to stay on one round, and for Print answer key.
Tips
Today's date of the equinox and the changing of the clocks are asked in the March pack, not here.
Questions and answers
When does spring start?
It depends who is counting. The spring equinox is in March in the Northern Hemisphere and in September in the Southern Hemisphere. In Ireland spring is often defined as February, March and April, and Lichun, around February 4, begins the Chinese spring.
Why is the season called spring?
The name comes from phrases such as springing time, used in the 14th century, and the spring of the year. An older English word for the season was lencten, which survives as Lent.
Which are the easy spring trivia questions?
Each round is stored easiest first. Easy ones by our estimate: which country has the Keukenhof flower garden, what covers a pussy willow's young catkins, which birds return to San Juan Capistrano, and what a sunshower is.
Why are robins' eggs blue?
The pigment is biliverdin, a product of the breakdown of heme. The color name robin egg blue comes from the eggs of the American robin. The question is in Eggs, nests and migration.
At an equinox of the planet Saturn, what is turned edge-on to the Sun?Answer: Its ring system. Source: Wikipedia: Equinox
At the March equinox the point on Earth directly under the Sun crosses the equator. Which way is it heading?Answer: North. Source: Wikipedia: March equinox
At the moment of an equinox, how is Earth's axis tilted in relation to the Sun?Answer: Neither toward the Sun nor away from it. Source: Wikipedia: Equinox
The equinoxes are the only times when the edge between night and day does what?Answer: Runs perpendicular to the equator. Source: Wikipedia: Equinox
Folklore in the United States holds that an egg can be balanced on its end only at which time of year?Answer: The vernal equinox. Source: Wikipedia: Egg balancing
Following the Irish calendar, spring in Ireland is often defined as which three months?Answer: February, March and April. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
From the spring equinox until the summer solstice, what happens to the length of the daytime?Answer: It keeps increasing. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
Imbolc, a Gaelic festival that marks the beginning of spring, falls on which date?Answer: February 1. Source: Wikipedia: Imbolc
In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Brazil, which are the spring months?Answer: September, October and November. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
In Chinese cultures Lichun signifies the beginning of spring. Around which date does it usually begin?Answer: February 4. Source: Wikipedia: Lichun
In Sweden, meteorologists say spring begins once the average daily temperature has stayed above freezing for how many days in a row?Answer: Seven. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
In the 14th century the season took its English name from which phrase?Answer: Springing time. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
In the Julian calendar of the ancient Roman world, which date was the spring equinox?Answer: March 25. Source: Wikipedia: March equinox
In the traditional Chinese calendar, which solar term is taken as the midpoint of spring?Answer: Chunfen. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
The name of April is traditionally traced to the Latin verb aperire. What does aperire mean?Answer: To open. Source: Wikipedia: April
The Old English verb springan is the root of the word spring. What did it mean?Answer: To leap or burst forth. Source: Wiktionary: spring
The Old English word lencten gave English the word Lent. What did lencten mean?Answer: Spring season. Source: Wikipedia: Lent
The old word lencten, an early English name for spring, may refer to which feature of the season?Answer: The lengthening of the days. Source: Wikipedia: Lent
The spring equinox comes in March in the Northern Hemisphere. In which month does it come in the Southern Hemisphere?Answer: September. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
Flowers and trees in bloom 21
A crocus does not grow from a true bulb. From what does it grow?Answer: A corm. Source: Wikipedia: Crocus
The bluebonnet is the state flower of which state?Answer: Texas. Source: Wikipedia: Lupinus texensis
The English word daffodil appears to be derived from the name of which other plant?Answer: The asphodel. Source: Wikipedia: Narcissus (plant)
Forsythia has bright yellow flowers. When in early spring do they open?Answer: Before the leaves. Source: Wikipedia: Forsythia
Galanthus, the genus name of the snowdrop, comes from Greek words meaning what?Answer: Milk flower. Source: Wikipedia: Galanthus
How can a skunk cabbage melt the ice in a circle around it?Answer: It makes its own heat. Source: Wikipedia: Symplocarpus foetidus
In Britain, carpets of which violet-blue flower are used as a sign of ancient woodland?Answer: Bluebells. Source: Wikipedia: Hyacinthoides non-scripta
In Japan, what is the sakura zensen that people track northward each spring?Answer: The cherry blossom front. Source: Wikipedia: Cherry blossom
In maple trees, stored starch is turned to sugar that rises in the sap at which time of year?Answer: Late winter and early spring. Source: Wikipedia: Maple syrup
Keukenhof, one of the largest flower gardens in the world, is in which country?Answer: The Netherlands. Source: Wikipedia: Keukenhof
Magnolias are thought to have evolved for pollination by which insects, which existed before bees?Answer: Beetles. Source: Wikipedia: Magnolia
The name daisy is considered a corruption of which phrase?Answer: Day's eye. Source: Wikipedia: Bellis perennis
The name Keukenhof recalls what the grounds once were for a castle. What does it mean?Answer: Kitchen garden. Source: Wikipedia: Keukenhof
The name primrose comes from the late Latin prima rosa. What does that mean?Answer: First rose. Source: Wikipedia: Primula vulgaris
On March 27, 1912, the first two of Washington's Japanese cherry trees were planted on the north bank of what?Answer: The Tidal Basin. Source: Wikipedia: National Cherry Blossom Festival
The showy white parts of a flowering dogwood are not its petals. What are they?Answer: Bracts. Source: Wikipedia: Cornus florida
Spring ephemerals are woodland wildflowers that bloom early and fast. What does that timing let them use?Answer: Sunlight that reaches the forest floor before the trees leaf out. Source: Wikipedia: Ephemeral plant
Tulips grow wild over much of the Near East and Central Asia. Which peoples were the first to cultivate them?Answer: The Persian and Turkish people. Source: Wikipedia: Tulip
What covers the young catkins of a pussy willow in early spring?Answer: Fine, grayish fur. Source: Wikipedia: Pussy willow
What is the botanical name for the cup or trumpet at the center of a daffodil?Answer: The corona. Source: Wikipedia: Narcissus (plant)
Which cherry has spread throughout Japan since the Meiji period and become the main tree of blossom viewing?Answer: The Yoshino cherry. Source: Wikipedia: Cherry blossom
Eggs, nests and migration 20
The American robin is one of the earliest birds each year to do what?Answer: Lay its eggs. Source: Wikipedia: American robin
At Mission San Juan Capistrano in California, the return of which birds is traditionally observed every March 19?Answer: Swallows. Source: Wikipedia: Mission San Juan Capistrano
The bar-tailed godwit makes the longest known non-stop flight of any bird. It flies across the Pacific from Alaska to where?Answer: New Zealand. Source: Wikipedia: Bar-tailed godwit
Before migration many birds show a restlessness first described in 1795. By which German word is it known?Answer: Zugunruhe. Source: Wikipedia: Bird migration
Brown-headed cowbirds lay eggs in robin nests. What do the robins usually do?Answer: Reject the egg. Source: Wikipedia: American robin
The central valley of which Nebraska river is the most important stopover for migrating lesser sandhill cranes?Answer: The Platte. Source: Wikipedia: Sandhill crane
Cliff swallows build their nests from mud. What shape are the nests?Answer: Shaped like a gourd. Source: Wikipedia: Cliff swallow
Despite the name, when do mayflies emerge as adults?Answer: From spring to autumn. Source: Wikipedia: Mayfly
For some birds a nest is a shelf made of which dried material?Answer: Saliva. Source: Wikipedia: Bird nest
Frogs typically lay their eggs in water, usually wrapped in jelly. What are the eggs then called?Answer: Spawn. Source: Wikipedia: Frog
In the eastern United States, purple martins are almost entirely dependent on what for a place to nest?Answer: Houses and hollow gourds put up by people. Source: Wikipedia: Purple martin
Migrating birds steer by the Sun and stars and by mental maps. What else do they use?Answer: The Earth's magnetic field. Source: Wikipedia: Bird migration
The song of the common cuckoo starts in April as which musical interval?Answer: A descending minor third. Source: Wikipedia: Common cuckoo
The spring peeper has a chirping call that marks the beginning of spring. What kind of animal is it?Answer: A small frog. Source: Wikipedia: Spring peeper
Vernal pools fill for a season and then dry. Which animals are they usually without, to the benefit of young frogs and salamanders?Answer: Fish. Source: Wikipedia: Vernal pool
What happens to the beak of an American goldfinch with the spring molt?Answer: It turns bright orange. Source: Wikipedia: American goldfinch
What is a brood patch?Answer: A patch of featherless skin on a bird's underside in the nesting season. Source: Wikipedia: Brood patch
What is a clutch of eggs?Answer: The group of eggs laid at one time, as in one nest. Source: Wikipedia: Clutch (eggs)
Which pigment gives the eggs of the American robin their blue-green color?Answer: Biliverdin. Source: Wikipedia: Robin egg blue
Young that are relatively mature and able to move about from the moment of hatching are described by which word?Answer: Precocial. Source: Wikipedia: Precociality and altriciality
Rain, rainbows and the thaw 20
A fog bow appears in fog, not rain. What is it sometimes called?Answer: A white rainbow. Source: Wikipedia: Fog bow
A lightning channel briefly heats the air to around 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. How does that compare with the surface of the Sun?Answer: It is much hotter. Source: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory: Lightning Basics
Americans call it mud season. What is it called in Canadian English?Answer: Breakup. Source: Wikipedia: Mud season
An ice jam forms on a river when the drifting ice does what?Answer: Comes to a stop, as at a bend or against bridge piers. Source: Wikipedia: Ice jam
At any given moment, roughly how many thunderstorms are in progress around the world?Answer: 2,000. Source: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory: Thunderstorm Basics
How do hailstones form?Answer: Raindrops are carried up by a storm's updrafts into very cold air and freeze. Source: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory: Hail Basics
In North America, which mountains keep the hot and cold air masses of spring from spreading east, so that they meet over Tornado Alley?Answer: The Rocky Mountains. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
In the folklore of many countries, a sunshower means that a clever animal or a trickster is doing what?Answer: Getting married. Source: Wikipedia: Sunshower
The light of a primary rainbow comes back most intensely at about which angle?Answer: 42 degrees. Source: Wikipedia: Rainbow
Nimbostratus takes the first half of its name from the Latin nimbus. What is a nimbus?Answer: Rain-bearing cloud. Source: Wikipedia: Nimbostratus cloud
Spring floods are most common in and near mountains because snowmelt is sped up by what?Answer: Warm rains. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
Thunderstorms are most likely in spring and summer. At which time of day are they most likely?Answer: In the afternoon and evening. Source: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory: Thunderstorm Basics
What decides whether a rainbow is a primary or a secondary bow?Answer: The number of reflections of light inside the water droplets. Source: Wikipedia: Rainbow
What is a brief, heavy fall of rain called?Answer: A cloudburst. Source: Wikipedia: Rain
What is a freshet?Answer: The yearly high water on a river from melting snow and ice. Source: Wikipedia: Freshet
What is a sunshower?Answer: Rain that falls while the Sun is shining. Source: Wikipedia: Sunshower
What tends to happen to raindrops as they reach their largest sizes?Answer: They break up. Source: Wikipedia: Rain
Which dark, nearly uniform cloud usually produces continuous rain but no lightning or thunder?Answer: Nimbostratus. Source: Wikipedia: Nimbostratus cloud
Why is spring weather so often unstable?Answer: Warm air pushes in from lower latitudes while cold air still presses from the polar regions. Source: Wikipedia: Spring (season)
The word petrichor joins two Greek words. One is ichor, the fluid in the veins of the gods. What does the other, petra, mean?Answer: Rock or stone. Source: Wikipedia: Petrichor
Spring customs around the world 20
A more ancient form of the Japanese custom of flower viewing is called umemi. Which blossoms does it enjoy?Answer: Plum blossoms. Source: Wikipedia: Hanami
About how many trees went into the ground in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, the first Arbor Day?Answer: One million. Source: Wikipedia: Arbor Day
The April Fair of Seville generally begins how long after Easter Holy Week?Answer: Two weeks. Source: Wikipedia: Seville Fair
Argentina conventionally celebrates the beginning of spring on which date?Answer: September 21. Source: Wikipedia: Spring day
Before the Persian new year Iranians carry out khaneh tekani, a great clean of the home. What does the phrase literally mean?Answer: Shaking the house. Source: Wikipedia: Spring cleaning
Chaharshanbe Suri, an Iranian festival of bonfires, is held on the eve of the last what of the year?Answer: Wednesday. Source: Wikipedia: Chaharshanbe Suri
Floriade, a flower festival held in spring from mid-September to mid-October, takes place in which city?Answer: Canberra. Source: Wikipedia: Floriade (Canberra)
In 19th-century America, why was March often the best time for a great dusting of the house?Answer: Windows could be opened and the high winds carried the dust out. Source: Wikipedia: Spring cleaning
In France an April fool is a poisson d'avril. What does that literally mean?Answer: April's fish. Source: Wikipedia: April Fools' Day
In the well dressing of the English Peak District, wells and springs are decorated with designs made from what?Answer: Flower petals. Source: Wikipedia: Well dressing
The mărțișor, given at the beginning of spring in Romania and Moldova, is made from two intertwined strings of which colors?Answer: Red and white. Source: Wikipedia: Mărțișor
On March 1 Bulgarians exchange and wear martenitsi for the holiday of Baba Marta. What does Baba Marta mean?Answer: Granny March. Source: Wikipedia: Baba Marta
Pohela Boishakh, a holiday on April 14 in Bangladesh, is the first day of the new year in which calendar?Answer: The Bengali calendar. Source: Wikipedia: Pohela Boishakh
Sabzeh is set out in a dish for the Persian new year. What is it?Answer: Sprouts of wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil grown in a dish. Source: Wikipedia: Haft-sin
Sechseläuten, a spring holiday whose name means the six o'clock ringing of the bells, belongs to which Swiss city?Answer: Zurich. Source: Wikipedia: Sechseläuten
Sham Ennessim, a public holiday that marks the beginning of spring, is celebrated in which country?Answer: Egypt. Source: Wikipedia: Sham Ennessim
Songkran, the name of the Thai new year, goes back to a Sanskrit term for what?Answer: Movement, or astrological passage. Source: Wikipedia: Songkran (Thailand)
Thingyan, a festival that usually falls in the middle of April, is the New Year of which country?Answer: Myanmar. Source: Wikipedia: Thingyan
Weifang, in China, holds an international festival from April 20 to 25. As the capital of what is the city known?Answer: Kites. Source: Wikipedia: Weifang International Kite Festival
Which United States senator proposed the nationwide environmental teach-in of April 22, 1970, that became the first Earth Day?Answer: Gaylord Nelson. Source: Wikipedia: Earth Day
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer agrees with a sentence in the page named and linked beside the question, read on 2026-10-02; every extra claim in an explanation was read on the same page. Three weather questions follow the Severe Weather 101 pages of the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (https://www.nssl.noaa.gov) on thunderstorms, lightning and hail; the other questions cite the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) or the Wiktionary entry (https://en.wiktionary.org) the sentence was read in. The pack is about the season as a whole, for a table of adults. Festival dates that move are asked by their rule, never by one year's date. Festivals of a faith or a people are each a single plain fact: a name, a date or a custom. Left out on purpose: records and counts that change, living people, brand names and sports events. Facts the site's March, May, Easter, fall, color and new year packs already ask (the date and the meaning of the equinox, the clocks, sakura and hanami and the gift of 1912, May Day and the maypole, Nowruz and its table of seven, the order of a rainbow's colors, the monarch's flight, how long a hen sits) were left out or asked from another side, so no question here repeats one of theirs word for word as they stood on 2026-10-02. Levels are our estimate for a table of adults; each round is stored easiest first. Licence: own work