The First Picnic Table Appeared In The Late 1800s.

Going for a picnic has been an amusing pastime for many generations, as people love the idea of being able to soak up some sunshine and eat a meal at the same time! It likely started from a practical standpoint, with hunting parties or travelers who needed to take portable food with them on their journeys.

But now, National Picnic Day is here to show appreciation for this practice!

• 14th Century – One predecessor to the modern picnic is the medieval hunting party, which would stop to eat along the way.
• 1692 – Listed as a new word, “pique-nique” first appeared in the 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Françoise de Ménage.
• 18th century – This meal hearkens back to mid-18th-century al fresco French dining when all you needed was a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, some cheese and fruit and you could have a party under the sky.
• 1748 – The word “picnic” was first introduced in English in 1748.
• 1789 – The French introduced the modern picnic fashion when they opened their royal parks to the public after the Revolution of 1789.
• 1800s – The first table designed specifically for picnics (in a style similar to what we know today) appeared in the late 1800s.
• 1800s – The concept of the picnic spreads to Britain and the rest of the Isles, with an official Picnic Society meeting regularly near the Pantheon in London.
• 1884 – The use of the phrase “no picnic” to describe something difficult dates back to 1884.
• 1886 – A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, depicting picnic scenes near the water, is finished by Georges Seurat in the pointillist technique.
• 1907 – The concept of a Teddy Bear Picnic probably originated with the 1907 song “Teddy Bears’ Picnic,” written by American composer John Walter Bratton.
• 1955 – The 1955 film Picnic, with William Holden and Kim Novak, was nominated for six Oscars and won two for best art direction and best film editing.
• 1967 – President Lyndon B. Johnson and wife Lady Bird host a picnic on the South Lawn of the White House for members of Congress, staff members and their families, which becomes an annual event.
• 1969 – In a protest in favor of German reunification, the Pan-European Picnic takes place along the Hungarian and Austrian border.
• 2000- In the year 2000, a 600-mile-long picnic took place in France to celebrate the first Bastille Day of the new millennium.
• 2013 – According to research done in 2013 the average family spends £26 ($33.75) per picnic, totaling a cool £2,479,720,000 ($3,219,995,771)
• From the French for piquenique, picnic means a meal eaten outdoors.
• No one really knows the origin of the word “picnic.” Some believe it is based on the French verb “piquer”, which means to ‘pick’ or ‘peck’, with the rhyming “nique” meaning “thing of little importance”.
• Did you know that a “picnic” ham is really not a true ham? It is cut from the upper part of the foreleg of a pig – a true ham is cut from the hind leg.
• Italy’s favorite picnic day is Easter Monday. It is called “Angel’s Monday” or Pasquetta (“Little Easter”).
• After an ant has visited your picnic, it lays down a scent as it returns to the nest for the other ants to follow!
• A fashionable group of Londoners started a Picnic Society in the early 19th century. Their members were expected to share entertainment and refreshments.
• One of the first accounts of picnicking comes from tales of Robin Hood. Robin, joined by his Merry Men, would informally dine on bread, cheese, and beer under the shelter of the trees.
• The average person picnics at least three times a year, that’s 94 million picnics per year.
• The most popular picnic snack fifty years ago was the humble cheese sandwich. Now, it’s a bag of crisps.
• The most popular day for picnics in the US is the 4th of July. In Italy it’s Easter Monday. In France, it’s Bastille Day. In the UK, it’s (weather dependent) rapidly becoming National Picnic Week.
• Fortnum & Mason, the London department store, claims to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738. They still sell them today.
• The Longest Picnic Table – 322.42 meters long (2nd April 2017 / Réunion)
• The Longest Picnic Line – 2,277 meters long (15th July 2012 / Canada)
• The Largest Picnic – 22,232 people (20th June 2009 / Portugal)
• The Largest Picnic Blanket – 1,760 square meters (April 2008 / Woven In Wales & Laid Out In South Africa)

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Mobile-Cuisine

Quality Unearthed

National Picnic Week

Stikins

AllPicnic Tables