wedding breakfast is a dinner given to newlyweds, and guests at the wedding reception. This phrase is still used in English English. The Compact Oxford Dictionary lists the phrase as "English only", and Merriam-Webster's online dictionary does not include it at all. Wedding breakfast habits are sometimes seen in non-English speaking countries that market themselves as destination weddings, eg. Poland.
Currently, the wedding breakfast is usually not breakfast, nor does it look like a regular breakfast, so its name can be confusing. The name is claimed to have arisen from the fact that during pre-Reformation, the wedding service is usually a Mass of the Eucharist and that the newlyweds will fast before the marriage to qualify for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. After the ceremony is over, the priest will bless and distribute some wine, cakes and sweets, which are then handed to the company, including newlyweds. The distribution of these foods and drinks is a literal "breaking up" for newly married couples, although others present do not need to take communion and therefore will not always fast. Since the use of this phrase can not be demonstrated again on the date before the first half of the nineteenth century, the pre-16th century origins seem unlikely.
The author of the Party-giving on Every Scale (London, n.d. [1880]) suggested the phrase might have evolved fifty years earlier:
The orthodox "Wedding Breakfast" might be more properly called "Wedding Dinner," because it assumes the character of the meal is for the most part; in any case it had little to do with breakfast that day, although the title of the breakfast was still applied to it, because of the praise of the tradition. As recently as fifty years ago, lunch was not a recognized meal, even in the richest families, and weddings were modernized into wedding breakfasts, indicating that the entertainment is still there.
The Oxford English Dictionary did not record any occurrences of the phrase "wedding breakfast" before 1850, but it was used at least as far back as 1838. This would correspond to the above quote, suggesting the phrase began to be used around the 1830s.
Video Wedding breakfast
See also
- List of breakfast topics
- Wedding
- Wedding reception
- Dinner before wedding
Maps Wedding breakfast
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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