Wedding schedules are hard enough to work out, and that’s before you’ve got to the ‘breakfast’ part.
The wedding breakfast – much to our dismay – doesn’t include pancakes, cereal, or hash browns, and isn’t eaten in the morning either.
This is the meal you have after the ceremony, which sometimes is more of a sit-down affair, and sometimes will be a classic buffet or trendy food trucks.
If you’ve just got an invite to a wedding this year, you might be wondering why on earth they don’t just call it the wedding dinner.
There is actually a very good reason for this, though.
Why is it called a wedding breakfast?
The word breakfast simply means to break a fast.
When we talk about our morning meal, this means we’re breaking the fast from our sleep time, which is normally the longest period we go between meals.
In terms of weddings, the word still means the same thing. It’s thought that the name ‘wedding breakfast’ first came about around 1830, which is when the earliest usage of the words together can be found.
There are two potential explanations to why we call it breakfast
The first is that in the past, the nuptials would take place after Eucharistic mass in the morning, and guests wouldn’t eat beforehand.
So, when the priest would hand out ceremonial foods after the vows, they’d all be breaking their fast.
Other records hint that it may have been called the wedding breakfast as a number of people simply didn’t eat lunch hundreds of years ago, with a morning and evening meal being more commonplace.
An 1880 book called Party-giving on Every Scale stated:
The orthodox ‘Wedding Breakfast’ might more properly be termed a ‘Wedding Luncheon’ as it assumes the character of that meal to a great extent; in any case it bears little relation to the breakfast of that day, although the title of breakfast is still applied to it, out of compliment to tradition.
As recently as fifty years ago luncheon was not a recognised meal, even in the wealthiest families, and the marriage feast was modernised into the wedding breakfast, which appellation this entertainment still bears.
In the same way many wedding traditions – from fathers giving brides away to wearing white – have endured through the years, this one is very similar.
These days, however, you’re more than welcome to eat before you get to the wedding. In fact, plenty of nearly-weds will be tucking in to McDonald’s breakfasts or stuffing themselves with croissants themselves as they get ready for the big day.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/02/called-wedding-breakfast-11992096/
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