General Awareness

Indian Festivals and Culture

3,001 Questions

Indian festivals and culture encompass diverse religious celebrations, harvest festivals, and regional traditions. Questions cover festivals like Holi, Maha Shivaratri, and Ugadi. Deepen your knowledge of cultural rituals and traditional practices for state level exams.

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Indian Festivals and Culture Questions

Multiple choice

"ATHAPOO" is associated with which of the following festivals?

  1. Onam

  2. Pongal

  3. Saraswathi Pooja

  4. Kumbhamela
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Athapoo (or Pookalam) is the intricate floral carpet arrangement central to Onam, Kerala's harvest festival celebrating the legendary King Mahabali. During the 10-day festival, beautiful flower patterns are created on the ground to welcome the spirit of the beloved king. Onam falls in the Malayalam month of Chingam (August-September).

Multiple choice

'Phool Walon Ki Sair', a three day festival is celebrated by

  1. Hindus

  2. Muslims

  3. Both Hindus and Muslims

  4. Sikhs
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Phool Walon Ki Sair (Festival of Flower Sellers) is a three-day festival celebrated in Delhi, representing communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims. It originated during the Mughal era and involves offering flowers and floral chaadars at both the Hindu dargah of Jog Maya Mandir and the Muslim dargah of Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki.

Multiple choice

''The Carnival'' is the most popular festival of

  1. Kerala

  2. Goa

  3. Meghalaya

  4. Nagaland
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Goa Carnival is one of the most famous festivals in India, introduced by Portuguese colonists. It is a pre-Lent festival celebrated with street parades, music, and dancing. Kerala (Onam), Meghalaya (Wangala), and Nagaland (Hornbill) have different famous festivals, not the Carnival.

Multiple choice

Which of the following combination of the states and the festivals mainly celebrated there is not correct?

  1. Rajasthan - Gangaur Teej

  2. Gujarat - Durga Puja

  3. Maharashtra - Ganesh Chaturthi

  4. Uttar Pradesh - Krishna Janmashtami
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

This question asks which state-festival pairing is NOT correct. Durga Puja is predominantly a West Bengal festival, especially in Kolkata. Gujarat is famous for Navratri, not Durga Puja. The other pairings are correct: Gangaur Teej in Rajasthan, Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra, and Krishna Janmashtami in Uttar Pradesh (Mathura/Vrindavan).

Multiple choice

The birth anniversary of Lord Shiva is celebrated on

  1. Guru Purnima

  2. Janamashthmi

  3. Shivaratri

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Shivaratri is the festival celebrating Lord Shiva's birth and marriage, observed on the 14th day of the dark fortnight in Phalguna month. Guru Purnima honors teachers, Janamashtmi celebrates Lord Krishna's birth, and neither relates to Shiva.

Multiple choice

What does the Car festival of Puri commemorate?

  1. Krishna's Bal lila

  2. Krishna's Ras lila with gopies

  3. Lifting of Mount Goverdhana

  4. Krishna's journey from Gokul to Mathura
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The Car (Rath) Festival of Puri commemorates Lord Krishna's journey from Gokul to Mathura. The annual event involves pulling decorated chariots carrying Lord Jagannath (a form of Krishna), Balabhadra, and Subhadra through the streets. It symbolizes this journey and Krishna's departure from his childhood home. The other options refer to different episodes in Krishna's life.

Multiple choice

Indian festivals are very colourful. Every region

Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the given question out of the four alternatives. 

The very word festival brings to mind, scenes of cheerfulness and merry making. Festival time is an occasion for rejoicing with one's family and community. Rich and poor, men and women, young and old are happy on the festive occasions. All communities, all religions, all nations have their festivals but nowhere do they form such a complete part of the life as they do in India. Indian festivals are as varied as the people themselves. Every religion, every region has something different to offer. They can broadly be divided into three categories-national or political, religious and seasonal. Most Indian festivals have their origin either in religion or in the myths and legends of popular faith.

  1. contributes something dissimilar

  2. tries to contribute

  3. has similarities

  4. celebrates according to its religion
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

It is clearly given in the passage “every religion, every region has something different to offer.” So, it is correct.

Multiple choice

On a festival, we get a chance to

Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the given question out of the four alternatives. 

The very word festival brings to mind, scenes of cheerfulness and merry making. Festival time is an occasion for rejoicing with one's family and community. Rich and poor, men and women, young and old are happy on the festive occasions. All communities, all religions, all nations have their festivals but nowhere do they form such a complete part of the life as they do in India. Indian festivals are as varied as the people themselves. Every religion, every region has something different to offer. They can broadly be divided into three categories-national or political, religious and seasonal. Most Indian festivals have their origin either in religion or in the myths and legends of popular faith.

  1. share our joy with kith and kin

  2. crack fireworks and buy sweets

  3. study the origins of the festivals

  4. listen to folk stories
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

It is correct as the second line of the passage states that festival time is an occasion for rejoicing with one's family and community.

Multiple choice

Rejoicing implies

Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the given question out of the four alternatives. 

The very word festival brings to mind, scenes of cheerfulness and merry making. Festival time is an occasion for rejoicing with one's family and community. Rich and poor, men and women, young and old are happy on the festive occasions. All communities, all religions, all nations have their festivals but nowhere do they form such a complete part of the life as they do in India. Indian festivals are as varied as the people themselves. Every religion, every region has something different to offer. They can broadly be divided into three categories-national or political, religious and seasonal. Most Indian festivals have their origin either in religion or in the myths and legends of popular faith.

  1. showing great happiness

  2. showing great sadness

  3. being discontented

  4. being bored
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Rejoice is a word related to happiness. So, it is correct.

Multiple choice

Festivals in India are

Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the given question out of the four alternatives. 

The very word festival brings to mind, scenes of cheerfulness and merry making. Festival time is an occasion for rejoicing with one's family and community. Rich and poor, men and women, young and old are happy on the festive occasions. All communities, all religions, all nations have their festivals but nowhere do they form such a complete part of the life as they do in India. Indian festivals are as varied as the people themselves. Every religion, every region has something different to offer. They can broadly be divided into three categories-national or political, religious and seasonal. Most Indian festivals have their origin either in religion or in the myths and legends of popular faith.

  1. diverse like people

  2. a private affair

  3. not categorised as political

  4. celebrated together by different faiths
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

It is given “Indian festivals are as varied as the people themselves.”

Multiple choice

The word festival brings to mind a scene of

Directions: Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to the given question out of the four alternatives. 

The very word festival brings to mind, scenes of cheerfulness and merry making. Festival time is an occasion for rejoicing with one's family and community. Rich and poor, men and women, young and old are happy on the festive occasions. All communities, all religions, all nations have their festivals but nowhere do they form such a complete part of the life as they do in India. Indian festivals are as varied as the people themselves. Every religion, every region has something different to offer. They can broadly be divided into three categories-national or political, religious and seasonal. Most Indian festivals have their origin either in religion or in the myths and legends of popular faith.

  1. comfort

  2. pampering

  3. kindness

  4. joyfulness
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

It is correct according to the first sentence of the passage. Cheerfulness and merry making associate with feelings of joyfulness. Comfort, kindness and pampering do not exactly fit with feelings of merry making and cheerfulness.

Multiple choice

Which city is famous for the festival of Dusehra?

  1. Mandi

  2. Una

  3. Kullu

  4. Manali
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Kullu is world-famous for its annual Dussehra festival, which is celebrated differently than in the rest of India, focusing on the gathering of local deities.