Feast vs banquet

Table after banqueting before dessert

It’s a long story, but around here, “it’s a feast,” announced at the onset of a group meal, has a complicated history that’s become a bit loaded. We’re trying out substitute vocabulary: banquet.

The noun form works perfectly, but the wrinkle is in the verb—they aren’t as interchangeable.

The photo is at the pre-dessert lag when we all hoped what we’d consumed would compact to make room for…two kinds of pie! With fresh-whipped cream!

One comment

  1. Mary Jo says:

    We had 2 Christmas Dinners, a banquet of Mexican dishes on Christmas Eve, the traditional date for their celebratory feast, and a vegan feast on Christmas day with Tofurkey. Both meals were fantastic and there’s lots of leftovers for the coming days. I always thought of a banquet as more of a buffet style with the dishes on the ‘banquet’ table or buffet, and the guests filling their plates and eating at informal settings. The Christmas eve dinner was that style whereas the Christmas day dinner was a sit-down family style meal, passing the serving platters of food around the table. Regardless, neither meal was ‘traditional’ for my immediate family!