Spooktoberfest!

The month of October brings all kinds of delights—autumn leaves, good food and drink, and ghouls and goblins. But, as they say, the devil is in the details! How well do you know your October facts? Take this month’s quiz and find out!

Oktoberfest is traditionally celebrated with which type of beer?

1. Lager
2. Pale Ale
3. Stout
4. Märzen

Which U.S. city boasts the largest Halloween parade?

1. Salem, Massachusetts
2. New Orleans
3. Los Angeles
4. New York

Oktoberfest originally began as a celebration of what event?

1. The founding of Munich
2. A royal wedding
3. The harvest season
4. The opening of the first Bavarian beer hall

True or False? The largest pumpkin ever grown weighs more than a Toyota Prius.

In the original 1978 Halloween movie, what was Michael Myers’s mask actually made from?

1. A blank mannequin face
2. A Captain Kirk mask
3. A hockey mask
4. A copy of Beethoven’s life mask, cast in 1812

Which day in October is National Pumpkin Day in the United States?

1. October 1
2. October 14
3. October 26
4. October 31

The Modern Prometheus is the subtitle of which classic horror novel?

1. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
2. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
3. Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
4. H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau

This actor, whose name is synonymous with classic horror films, is heard every yuletide season narrating the classic animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

1. Bela Lugosi
2. Vincent Price
3. Boris Karloff
4. Peter Lorre

What causes autumn leaves to change color?

1. Cooler temperatures
2. Diminishing daylight hours
3. Seasonal changes in the Earth’s magnetic field
4. Both A and B

How much do Americans spend on Halloween?

1. About $10.6 billion
2. More than the entire annual budget of the State of Montana
3. More than the GDP of Tajikistan
4. All of the above

Answers:

1. Correct answer: 4. Traditionally brewed in the spring (“Märzen” meaning “March”) and aged, or lagered, throughout the summer, Märzen was the official beer of Oktoberfest from the mid-19th century until the late 1980s/early 1990s. Today’s Oktoberfest brew is lighter than traditional Märzen.
2. Correct answer: 4. The annual Village Halloween Parade in New York’s Greenwich Village is reported to be the world’s largest Halloween parade, with 50,000 costumed participants and 2 million spectators.
3. Correct answer: 2. The royal wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810, is the event that launched Oktoberfest, with many happy returns.
4. Correct answer: True. Travis Gienger, a Minnesota horticulture teacher, took the record for the largest pumpkin ever grown at the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California on October 9, 2023. His gargantuan gourd clocked in at 2,749 pounds—more than the curb weight of a Toyota Prius C.
5. Correct answer: 2. The iconic horror character’s mask originated from a cast of William Shatner’s face made for the 1975 horror film The Devil’s Rain.
   Correct answer: C. Fall’s most glamorous gourd has its own day in the sun, observed October 26.
6. Correct answer: 2. Like the fire of Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein’s discovery of immortality also gave humans that which once belonged only to the gods.
   Correct answer: C. English actor William Henry Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff, whose monstrous career was launched with Universal Pictures’ 1931 Frankenstein, narrated the classic Christmas special that debuted on CBS television in December 1966.
7. Correct answer: 4. During the growing season, chlorophyll is constantly produced and broken down, which keeps leaves green. In autumn, as days get shorter and temperatures drop, chlorophyll production slows and eventually stops, revealing the other brilliant pigments present.
8. Correct answer: 4. Americans’ insatiable appetite for costumes, candy, décor and party supplies outstrips Montana’s annual state budget or the GDP of Tajikistan, each less than the roughly $10.6 billion spent celebrating the last day of October. Now that’s scary!