Customs of the table
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snacks, tea and coffee, sweets, feasts and fasts: the customs around the table: when a meal is eaten, who sits where, what a feast or a fast asks of you. For the dishes themselves, see Thali.
BreakfastHow the day is opened: the first gathering, the blessing, the first drink for a guest.28LunchThe midday pause: the siesta, the shared table and the carried meal.34DinnerThe evening table: who sits where, who is served first, what is said.78SupperThe late, light meal: the last gathering of the day and the vigil meal.15Tea-time and snacking customsThe bite offered to a visitor, the market stop and the tea-time visit.61Tea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesThe rituals and rules of what is poured and how it is received.83Sweets given and sharedSweets handed out at a birth, a wedding or a festival, and offered at a shrine.92Feasts and festival mealsThe meal that marks a day, a rite or a season, and how it is kept.237Fasting and breaking the fastRamadan iftar, Lent, Ekadashi: the rules of the fast and how it ends.62