🔍 Haunted Places Folklore Trivia Questions & Answers
Below are 30 free haunted places folklore trivia questions with answers — part of Mysteries trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Mysteries quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Haunted Places Folklore trivia questions
Q1. The word "poltergeist" comes from German words meaning roughly what?
Answer: Noisy ghost
💡 It joins "poltern" (to rumble or make noise) with "Geist" (ghost), fitting its reputation for banging and moving objects.
Q2. Halloween traditions largely descend from which ancient Celtic festival marking summer's end?
Answer: Samhain
💡 Celts reportedly left out food that night to keep wandering spirits appeased.
Q3. Which Mexican holiday welcomes back deceased loved ones' souls with food, flowers, and altars?
Answer: Día de los Muertos
💡 Its roots trace back roughly 3,000 years to Indigenous Mesoamerican traditions.
Q4. Legend says the ghost of which executed queen wanders the Tower of London, headless?
Answer: Anne Boleyn
💡 One famous 1864 tale describes a guard lunging at a white figure near the Tower with his bayonet, only to have it pass straight through.
Q5. Which California mansion is famous for staircases leading nowhere and doors onto solid walls?
Answer: The Winchester Mystery House
💡 Heiress Sarah Winchester kept renovating the house for decades until her death in 1922, though historians say arthritis, not spirits, explains the odd 'Easy Riser' stairs.
Q6. A bestselling 1977 book about a terrorized Long Island family launched which horror franchise?
Answer: The Amityville Horror
💡 The book's co-writer later admitted to a magazine that the family and author 'created this horror story over many bottles of wine.'
Q7. A nightmare at a Colorado hotel gave Stephen King the idea for which haunted-hotel novel?
Answer: The Shining
💡 King and his wife stayed in Room 217 of the Stanley Hotel in 1974 as its only overnight guests before the season closed.
Q8. Underground tunnels beneath which European capital hold the bones of six million people?
Answer: Paris
💡 The Catacombs were originally old stone quarries, repurposed in the late 1700s to solve the city's overflowing-cemetery crisis.
Q9. Which Edinburgh graveyard is haunted by the legendary 'Mackenzie Poltergeist'?
Answer: Greyfriars Kirkyard
💡 The 'attacks' reportedly began only after vandals broke into the tomb in 1999.
Q10. Investigator Harry Price dubbed which Essex rectory 'the most haunted house in England'?
Answer: Borley Rectory
💡 Reported phenomena there included wall-writing and a headless phantom coachman.
Q11. Gangster Al Capone did time in 1929 at which Philadelphia prison, now a 'haunted' museum?
Answer: Eastern State Penitentiary
💡 His cell reportedly had fine furniture, rugs, and even a cabinet radio.
Q12. Ghost legends earned which Louisiana plantation the nickname 'America's Most Haunted House'?
Answer: The Myrtles Plantation
💡 The estate was built way back in 1796 near St. Francisville, Louisiana.
Q13. What Irish phrase, meaning 'fairy woman,' gave the banshee her name?
Answer: Bean sídhe
💡 Her death-wail is thought to descend from an old tradition of women keening at funerals.
Q14. In which US state does the legendary haunting of the Bell family and its 'witch' take place?
Answer: Tennessee
💡 The strange events reportedly began in 1817 with sightings of a dog-like creature with a rabbit's head.
Q15. What orange flower traditionally decorates Day of the Dead altars across Mexico?
Answer: Marigold
💡 Families call the altars 'ofrendas' and often top them with favorite foods of the departed.
Q16. Legend says a captain's reckless vow doomed which ship to sail the seas forever?
Answer: The Flying Dutchman
💡 Sailors believed even hailing the phantom ship could bring a curse of bad luck.
Q17. Which retired ocean liner, now a Long Beach hotel, is said to be haunted by a girl named Jackie?
Answer: The RMS Queen Mary
💡 She's linked to the ship's long-drained first-class swimming pool.
Q18. What firearms company's fortune funded endless renovations at the San Jose 'mystery house'?
Answer: Winchester Repeating Arms
💡 Popular legend claims she built endlessly to confuse spirits, but historians point instead to earthquake repairs and her own design tastes.
Q19. What Colorado mountain town is home to the hotel that inspired King's Overlook Hotel?
Answer: Estes Park
💡 Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film actually used a different building, Oregon's Timberline Lodge, for its exterior shots.
Q20. Which Indian fort is so haunted that the government bans visitors from staying past sunset?
Answer: Bhangarh Fort
💡 It's often called India's most haunted place, and local legend blames a broken promise to a meditating holy man for its curse.
Q21. Which lagoon island near Venice earned the folk nickname 'Island of Ghosts'?
Answer: Poveglia
💡 It served as a plague quarantine outpost for centuries before later becoming a mental hospital.
Q22. A famous 1936 photo claims to show the ghostly 'Brown Lady' on a staircase at which English hall?
Answer: Raynham Hall
💡 The eerie image ran in Country Life magazine that December.
Q23. Chinese tradition says the gates of the afterlife swing open during which annual event?
Answer: Hungry Ghost Festival
💡 Families burn incense and leave food out to ease the wandering spirits' hunger.
Q24. In 1890, the Kennard Novelty Company began selling what talking board for contacting spirits?
Answer: The Ouija board
💡 A medium using the board reportedly asked it for its own name, and it spelled out 'Ouija.'
Q25. What nickname do storytellers give the sinister spirit of Edinburgh's South Bridge Vaults?
Answer: Mr Boots
💡 Visitors say he's 'heard' before he's seen, via heavy, deliberate footsteps in the dark.
Q26. What nickname did a spooked Al Capone reportedly shout at during his stay in a haunted cell?
Answer: Jimmy
💡 Some ghost-hunters link the voice to a rival gunned down in a notorious 1929 gang shootout.
Q27. What Latin name, meaning 'foolish fire,' is given to the ghostly light called a will-o'-the-wisp?
Answer: Ignis fatuus
💡 European folklore blamed the ghostly light on a mischievous fairy or a wandering lost soul.
Q28. Which devoted disciple's quest to save his suffering mother inspired the Ghost Festival legend?
Answer: Mulian
💡 His tale reached China through a Buddhist scripture translated from Sanskrit.
Q29. Legend names the 'Brown Lady' ghost as which sister of Britain's first prime minister?
Answer: Dorothy Walpole
💡 Her brother, Robert Walpole, is widely regarded as Britain's first prime minister.
Q30. A folklorist tallied nearly how many suspected 'vampire' exhumations across old New England?
Answer: About 100
💡 The region's last such case was Mercy Brown's in Rhode Island back in 1892.
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