Dinner - Supper / Lunch - Dinner

[Henry]

Its interesting how we retain our upbringing, no matter how old we get.  I put up a post a little while ago and identified the time as suppertime.  Being brought up on the farm, we had three meals a day, breakfast, dinner and supper.  Once I left home and started working elsewhere, found out that nobody had supper anymore.  Dinner time for me was lunch for them and supper for me was dinner for them.

Back when my parents were alive and we invited them down for dinner, my mother and father would have arrived around 11:30 a.m.

The old time farm families wouldn't think of having dinner any other time but around noon.  Years from now, supper may be a forgotten word.

All of my reminders for the Senior Luncheons say, "Senior Dinner."

[Loctavious]

Was dinner another name for lunch Henry?  or was there something in the meal that made it a 'dinner' or is it supper?

[edakrupp]

The Dinner or large meal was traditionally in the middle of the day, (sometimes followed by a siesta) and still is in many parts of the worlds. Supper was a light and easily digested meal at the end of the day to take the edge off prior to bed. The old saying goes: breakfast, eat as a king, Lunch a Prince, and dinner a Pauper.  I'm not sure when the switch came, but alot of out present day tradition came into habit around the industrial revolution, Machinery and industry made it hard for people to leave their jobs and join their families in the middle of the day.

[Judi]

Growing up in Morrisville, we had breakfast, lunch and supper. Dinner referred to the noon meals on Sunday and Holidays because it was always a several course meal or as my Dad called it " a big to do"!

[dearon]

I grew up on a farm in Georgia Plains, it was Breakfast, dinner and supper. 
I found this translation on the internet which was quite interesting:

Breakfast, dinner, tea (6o/c-ish) = 'working class', with 'dinner' used even if the midday meal was only something light (a sandwich, etc), and 'tea' used even if it was a heavy meal.

2. Breakfast, lunch, dinner (7o/c-ish) = 'lower/middle middle class'.

3. Breakfast, lunch, supper (8o/c-ish) = 'upper middle' or 'upper class', with 'dinner' reserved for formal evening meals, and 'tea' for a light meal of sandwiches etc at 4o/c-ish.

But now that it's all been exhaustively tabulated by sociologists and writers on etiquette, people are more self-conscious in their choice of terms, and it's no longer an accurate social indicator. I'm not myself convinced that the 'working/middle/upper class' distinction holds true.

dinner--->A banquet or formal meal in honor of a person or an event.
supper--->A light evening meal when dinner is taken at midday

[Mike Raburn]

I just call it eating, but I did know the difference between supper and dinner as explained here,
Take the punk outta Vermont but you cannot take the Vermont outta the punk.

[msm]

From a former Fairfax Farmboy ----  breakfast,  dinner and supper --- just like Henry --   This was during the 60s & 70s --   and Noon was the exact time for Dinner ---   


Mike M

[mirjo]

My memere used to make a boiled dinner, but never a boiled supper. I wonder what the distinction is there?

I grew up using both terms mostly. My grandmother who grew up on a farm always made a big 'dinner' at noon and we often had Sunday 'dinner' with my other grandmother who didn't grow up on a farm. At home it was supper or dinner, I guess it just depended on whatever people were feeling at the time their mouth opened. Oddly enough, every weekend  we had brunch, but never once called it that. It was always a 'late breakfast' or something like that. It was the full onslaught of bacon/sausage, eggs, homefries, frenchtoast...between 11a-12n on Sat or Sun.

We're just a planet of bizarre creatures really.