Dinner, lunch, supper | Discussion Forum

Discussion Forum

Current User: Guest	Login Register
Please consider registering

Forums Episodes Dinner, lunch, supper

Dinner, lunch, supper

Add a New Topic

Reply to Post

Page: 1

User

Post

11:19AM
Jan-13-08

Maren Coates

Guest

I was interested in the young girl who called and asked the question about the meals of “breakfast, dinner and supper” that she had read in the “Anne of Green Gables” books. No mention was made of the fact that Anne lived on a farm where the meal in the middle of the day was often the big meal of the day served to farm workers where supper was served in the evening and was a lighter meal.

In my home growing up, we had one dinner a week and it was Sunday noon, the only mid-day meal of the week that was typically meat and potatoes and most often served in the dining room. The rest of the week we had lunch at noon (sandwiches, soup, and lighter fare). Our evening meal the rest of the week was supper, no matter what was served.

My mother, 89 years old, was remembering that growing up they didn’t have a refrigerator. Her mother would buy meat every morning and fix it for “dinner” at noon. For “supper” they would often have leftovers from their dinner.

I’d be interested in other thoughts on this subject.

Thanks for your interesting show.

3:46PM
Jan-13-08

Joanne Johnson

Guest

You are right! I was surprised that Martha didn’t make the distinction that dinner is the “big” meal of the day and can be mid-day or evening, but supper is a light evening meal ( or even at midnight), and lunch is a mid-day meal when the larger “dinner” is in the evening.

5:57PM
Jan-13-08

Grant Barrett

Admin

Brooklyn, New York

posts 489

There’s more discussion of this question in the episode thread.

9:20AM
Jan-14-08

Dieverdog

Guest

I got confused by this as a teen as well… growing up in the suburbs, most of my friends called their evening family meal dinner. I heard supper sometimes but dinner was more common. Then I hear my mother calling lunch (what I thought of as lunch) dinner… it confused and bugged me. But as I found out later, this was partly due to the fact that she grew up on a farm and the big meal on the farm was mid-day and they called it dinner… the hard-working men needed a big meal to fuel them for all the hard work for the afternoon.

It still kind of puzzles me how they got to be pretty interchangeable for some people. Because you don’t think of a dinner party as an afternoon thing, but a formal evening event. I guess it is a kind of city/country thing as you don’t think of dinner parties being a country type of event.

Then there’s tea the drink and tea the afternoon meal for the British folk… which can be confusing to us Americans if not indoctrinated to this difference. You can think you are accepting a hot drink and you get a whole meal!

7:25AM
Apr-17-08

Monica Sandor

Guest

Martha mentioned in the episode that the difference may be that Anne of Green Gables is a Canadian book. Being Canadian (big city), my experience is we follow the current US usage, and have breakfast - lunch - supper/dinner. I find that when people organise a more formal event, e.g. dinner party, it’s always dinner - you have state dinners and dinner parties, but not state suppers or supper parties. Hence this is in keeping with the point others have made on the fact that dinner designates the main meal.

However, the British usage does complicate this, as someone pointed out in reference to “tea” the meal. And in the days of L M Montgomery and Anne of GG, the British usage was probably more familiar in Canada, especially in the Maritime provinces (Anne is from Prince Eward Island). As someone once explained it to me - in Britain the names for midday and evening meals vary according to class and according to region. In the south, broadly speaking, the upper classes say breakfast - dinner - supper, with afternoon tea being a very light meal of tea and cake/crumpets/scones, with possibley small sandwiches (cucumber or otherwise) if it is “high tea”.
In lower class talk, tea IS supper, i.e. the evening meal, which could be a cooked meal or cold. BUT, in the north, tea is the evening meal - hot or cold - regardless of class. I don’t know of any difference between rural/urban. Some people say that tea is what you serve children when they come home from school, since most British schools serve (hot) meals at noon, served by “dinner ladies”, hence it is called dinner. If they bring their own sandwiches, then they bring their “lunch” (bag lunch, packed lunch, never packed dinner!).

And finally, the sacrocanct British Sunday midday meal is or was always called Sunday dinner - usually roast, potatoes, yorkshire pudding, etc. Though lately I have seen pubs in England advertise “Sunday lunch” which consists of the same sort of menu. The same seems true for Christmas Dinner, which in both England and English Canada is invariably at midday.

A nice historical article about dinner/lunch and their timing is available here:
http://www.history-magazine.com/dinner2.html

7:33PM
Apr-20-08

Ed Long

Guest

I’m originally from the midwest. My understanding from my paternal grandmother is that the distinction to be made about Dinner is this. The main meal of the day is always
Dinner. If it is served around noontime, it’s called Dinner. Therefore, the evening meal would be referred to as supper. However, if the main meal is in the evening then the noon time meal is called lunch.

9:29AM
Jun-01-08

Marvin Solomon

Guest

With all this discussion of breakfast vs lunch vs dinner (and on the other side of the Atlantic, tea), I’m surprised nobody mentioned George Bernard Shaw’s play “Misaliance”:

MRS TARLETON. Now stop joking the poor lad, John: I wont have it.
Has been worried to death between you all. _[To Gunner]_ Have you
had your tea?

GUNNER. Tea? No: it’s too early. I’m all right; only I had no
dinner: I didnt think I’d want it. I didnt think I’d be alive.

MRS TARLETON. Oh, what a thing to say! You mustnt talk like that.

JOHNNY. Hes out of his mind. He thinks it’s past dinner-time.

MRS TARLETON. Oh, youve no sense, Johnny. He calls his lunch his
dinner, and has his tea at half-past six. Havnt you, dear?

GUNNER. _[timidly]_ Hasnt everybody?

In North America, it’s a matter of meal size and part of the country. In England there’s the additional issue of social class, and Shaw being Shaw makes much of that. In fact, the class-based confusion regarding dinner vs tea, etc. is a running joke throughout the play. Consider:

TARLETON. Not a bit. Come in and have some tea. Stay to dinner.
Stay over the week-end. All my life Ive wanted to fly.

� later �

TARLETON. Just discussing your prowess, my dear sir. Magnificent.
Youll stay to dinner. Youll stay the night. Stay over the week. The
Chickabiddy will be delighted.

� still later �

PERCIVAL. Luggage was out of the question. If I stay to dinner I’m
afraid I cant change unless youll lend me some clothes.

Page: 1

Add a New Topic

Reply to Post

Reply to Topic: Dinner, lunch, supper

Courtesy matters! All posts and comments are moderated and subject to approval.

Topic RSS