A steer leaps over a picnic tabl
There are few instances throughout history when royals and regular citizens had much in common. But their interests did align when it came to getting out of the castle or house, sitting down at picnic tables under a wide open sky and enjoying a meal outdoors.
The popularity of the picnic table tradition is still going strong today.
All across the country go to any park early on Saturdays and Sundays and you will see families already camped out there, with the grill fired up and delicious smells of barbecue floating through the air. Some of those barbecue dishes are so mouth-watering, you could easily stick a maître de at the entrance of the park and charge people for a meal.
Eating outside is a cultural trend that seems to be growing rapidly. For example, every month there are nearly 20,000 searches on Google for terms related just to "picnic ideas." To keep pace with the popularity of dining outdoors, new picnic products keep coming on the market such as speaker-infused blankets or bagged alcohol.
One hot new trend with young people is to throw a retro "Posh Picnic" where they dress in old-fashioned outfits and recreate outdoor dining experiences of the past. There's got to be a zombie-themed picnic out there somewhere as well.
More and more people want to get out of their homes, out of their offices and into breathable green spaces under a wide-open roof of blue sky. And what's interesting, is that there is a long timeline to the art of dining al fresco at picnic tables that has interesting ties between royalty and the general public.
For example, in France, peasants were not even allowed to use many of the mammoth parks built by the royals to take a walk. That all changed of course, with the French Revolution.
In fact, the word picnic is believed to have started with the French. It's a derivative of the word "piquenique." The verb piquer means to "pick." Their idea of a picnic was when a bunch of people all supplied different dishes to the festivities and then the guests "picked" at the foods of their choice.
In classic literature you have great authors such as Charles Dickens or Jane Austen writing and glamorizing the art of picnicking. This created an image of the Victorian Era as the time when it seemed everybody sought the pleasantry of a park for a weekend meal.
Of course, there were some differences between then and now. For example, while many families certainly adorned their picnic tables with incredible meals, you probably won't find too many with white linen tablecloths, candelabras, chilled champagne and servants standing nearby to pour your drinks.
Actually, you really don't need any of those formal embellishment to have fun. You could replace most of them with a Frisbee and a cooler and the day would be just as enjoyable.
How the popularity of eating outside on picnic tables began
In England, the earliest picnics were medieval hunting feasts. Imagine setting up those picnic tables? You would have to haul out an entire restaurant full of food, tables, chairs, cutlery and all the hunting dogs, guns, ammo, horses, etc. Bring one dog and a bucket of chicken to a park nowadays and most people would be just as happy. The dog doesn't have to chase a fox. That's what the Frisbee is for.
Picnics were so cool back then, that there are many famous paintings of people enjoying the outdoors created by such masters as Monet, Renoir and Cezanne. Thomas Cole painted a famous masterpiece of a group sitting in the grass next to the Hudson River with mountains in the background and a minstrel plucking a tune on a guitar. A boombox today accomplishes the same thing. Better yet, you can easily change the station if you don't like the songs.
There are stories that Robin Hood and his Merry Men were very keen on eating outside, sitting at a long wooden picnic table drinking, wrestling and celebrating. Of course, there probably weren't many Denny's around at that time where they could eat anyway. They certainly did not want to dine at the nearest castle.
Early in the 19th century, a fashionable group of Londoners naturally had to bring some social stuffiness to the outdoors when they formed a group called "The Picnic Society." Everyone was expected to bring a dish and some form of entertainment. Probably wear a tuxedo too. (Today we refer to that faux-elaborate practice as "pot luck.")
In 2000, the French, who remember are credited with starting this whole thing, held a 600-mile long picnic to commemorate the first Bastille Day. That's a lot of picnic tables. Imagine what it would be like to pass the salt? Chances are it would end up in the next province.
Every year, the University of California - Davis holds a "Picnic Day" which attracts about 125,000 people, a tradition started in the early 1900s and is now recognized as the largest student-run event in the nation. All of things students are involved in from raves to festivals, a picnic still beats them all.
Park managers would be smart to monitor the frequency of the use of their picnic tables. Conversely, if citizens find that picnic tables at their local parks are increasingly hard to find, they can ask their town officials about adding more.
Plastic picnic tables made with recyclable
They can even form a Friends of the Park group and raise funds to buy more picnic site furnishings.
From time to time even kings, queens, earls, dukes and duchesses felt the need to get out of their stuffy, cold mega-room castles and dine en plein air. We call it a picnic, they called it a moveable feast. It's the same thing folks.
Eating in a park is one of the cheapest, easiest and most popular ways for people to have a good time. One way to attract more people to a park is to provide the means for them do it. Perhaps park officials can create their own "Picnic Day" or create themed picnics to draw people outdoors.
The public doesn't need a fancy restaurant or an enormous dining room to recreate history and make a meal special. All they need are a few picnic tables (made with either wood, concrete, metal or recycled plastic), some great food and people to share it.
Mother Nature takes care of the rest. As you can see, throughout history she's done the best job of creating the ideal dining ambiance, no matter what station in life a person occupies.
Update: Read about how "catered picnics" are a big rage now.
For some information about the origins of picknicking, check out this page.
See our Buyer's Guide for Picnic Tables.