With the holiday season upon us, it’s the time of year to sit down with family and friends and partake in the traditionally over-indulgent, deliciously decadent and carbohydrate-filled meals. But before the first bite is taken, there’s one tradition that Americans have been doing for years.
More than half of all households across the country — particularly in the Midwest and South — have been blessing their meals for generations. But what does it really mean today and why do we do it?
Historically speaking, when families “blessed” their meals, they were literally thanking God for providing the food on their table. Otherwise, they faced an issue most of us will never know in the slightest: starvation.
That seems legit: to thank God for keeping you alive one more day. But, around the modern American dinner table, there seems to be something quite different happening. The act of saying grace has become less about truly being thankful and more about upholding an image.
Without discounting the pure intentions of those who have them, it seems as though saying grace has morphed into an expected ritual with little meaning behind it. Is anyone at the dinner table genuinely bowing their head with pure humbleness and praise when the food is being blessed? If we’re being honest, the thoughts are more like, “Can you please hurry this prayer up? I’m hungry and my food is getting cold.”
Many people use the time to vocalize their thankfulness for a variety of things other than food, like nice weather, good health, a safe and warm home, and the company of friends and family. While it is seemingly important to a growing faith to be vocally thankful in prayer, is the dinner table the most appropriate place to share these appreciations?
English writer G.K. Chesterton said, “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
He makes a good point. The customary place to give thanks — for all aspects of life — has become focused around food, when in reality some of the best places to be thankful are not at the dinner table and probably not even in our homes.
My father-in-law recently went hunting in Wyoming and shot two antelope. He later shared that after getting both animals, he got on his knees and thanked God for providing such abundance for him and his family. That seemed like a more than appropriate time to share pure thankfulness.
The famous painting “Grace” by Eric Enstrom is the exact replica of a traditional blessing while praying before a meal. It depicts a kind-looking older gentlemen bowed over his tattered bible, meager soup and loaf of bread in utter humility. The key thing to note about the painting is the man is completely alone. No one else joins him at the table; it’s just him, his Bible and his food. It makes you wonder how many people pray like this when they’re alone. Probably not half of all Americans.
While we all might have different views or opinions on what it means to say grace, I would challenge each of us this holiday season to really think about what we’re saying and decide where it’s most personally meaningful to give thanks, whether it’s the dinner table, a 14,000-foot mountain, or the antelope fields of Wyoming.
Denise Day lives in Littleton.
