“God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessing, A-men, A-men.”
My family always used a traditional prayer at every meal; mother or father would sit at the head of the table and speak about how thankful we are for the specific gifts that we have been granted. This list of blessings God granted us would conclude with the phrase, Amen. Then it was time to eat. This is important to my parents, and religion played an important part in the forming of mealtime rituals in my house. When I started my own family, however, we took parts of my parent’s influence, and that of Joanne’s parents, and started our own ritual.
We often start our meal in the kitchen – the place where we gather most in our home. I assume the reason is because we want to involve whoever is cooking in the social aspects of pre-meal entertainment. I am often cooking and feel fortunate that we've lived in homes with kitchens large enough to hold many loved ones.
After the initial courses of the meal are eaten in the social setting of the kitchen, we often move to the dining room to eat the remainder of our meal. During more formal dining engagements, we begin the meal by taking time to go around the table and say one thing we are thankful for. This is a bit of a deviation from the prayer of my parents, but it serves the same purpose. Usually if the meal is in honor of a person, say for a birthday, we will take our turn to say something nice about the person. If it is a specific holiday, we take our time to speak about something we are most thankful for at that time.
Years ago, probably due to the influence of Parker’s nursery school, we began another tradition. It has spread beyond our dining table and on to much of our extended family as well. When the sharing of blessings is finished, a young voice, usually a Bennett or a Devon, begins; holding hands, we follow.
“God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessing, A-men, A-men.”
It is really interesting. I like this idea. In my family, we talk together and do things before we have dinner, too. For the part that you talked about the kitchen where your family always gadder together I really agree. My family have the same idea. And if any of my family member 's birthday, we do things like your family did, too.
ReplyDeleteI'am shocked by how differently each family eat and how mach money they speed to eat there breakfast, lunch and diner. And how much does each family eats.
ReplyDeleteIs cool to see how everyone eats differently for not only ever day but also special dinners. It's fun to compare the traditions of your family to my own.
ReplyDeleteThe way we eat is so different, it amazes me. To pray before we eat sounds so alien to me, yet I bet to you, it would probably be a normal and everyday thing. Also, it's kind of nice how you guys actually have a song before dinner. It sure is a creative way to start dinner!
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