Supper
The late, light meal: the last gathering of the day and the vigil meal.
Supper is the late or light meal: the last gathering of the day, the meal after a vigil, or the one that closes a fast. The customs here are about timing and company, not recipes. For dishes, see Thali.
The last gathering
In many households supper is a quieter meal than dinner, taken close to bedtime and often at home even where dinner is eaten out. Some traditions give it a ritual role: the meal after a midnight service, the Christmas Eve supper laid with an extra place, the Sabbath evening meal begun with a blessing over the table.
Vigil and night meals
Night-time meals are tied to wakes, festivals and the end of daily fasts. They are kept with their own rules about who is invited, what is said, and when the table is cleared.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Supper (meal). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Zemirot: ביקורת, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Shabbat meals: Yoninah, Public domain, source