Embarking on our banquet...

By Anonymous -

Image result for banquetWhat makes a banquet?

As Easter quickly approaches, and I realize that I will not be going home to celebrate the holiday as I normally do with my family in Astoria, NY, I think about the celebration I am missing out on, and what I will be doing to make up for this. 

Image result for st francis of assisi astoriaUsually my Easter is spent going to the Italian Sunday mass at St. Francis of Assisi, my parish church with my entire immediate family (my mom, aunts, uncles, cousins, nonna, nonni). We all find each other and sit in rows close to each other during mass, we exchange hugs and kisses during the "peace be with you" part of the mass, then we gather outside of the church after the mass has ended for our second round of exchanges. 

We all know where we are going next, we walk the three blocks together to my nonna's where we all gather on outside when the weather is nice for pictures, then we go inside for the courses to begin. My nonna prepares for Easter for weeks in advance, making sure every grandchild has their own massive chocolate egg to crack after dinner, and that we each have our favorite flavor "horse/doll" cookie (a tradition in my family). The dinner consists of multiple courses each of which has taken her special preparation, we all have helped to prepare for the meal in some way. 


Image result for preparation

As we begin to prepare our banquet here at Wheaton I thought about what makes a banquet a banquet. Looking at my very own Easter banquet I think I can see some things that are important for banquets no matter what the specific occasion. The first is preparation, a banquet takes time to plan in order for it to be a successful event. It takes time in advance to lay out a plan for a banquet, there is a lot of thought that goes behind these types of events. In the case of my Easter banquet there are many traditions that dictate the event, what we do, what we will eat, and what we will talk about. For our banquet for this class it will take some research to plan out these things because we will need to know what the other group is expecting of the banquet. 

Image result for variety of foodIn my opinion food is the other key aspect of a banquet, the quality of the food sets the mood of conversation for the entire night. We must decide on a type of food, or a theme to the food, the number of courses and options for vegans/ vegetarians. It is important to know who your guests are, what they are expecting of the event and what their food allergies may be to avoid any discomfort during the event. 

Image result for banquetsAlthough I will not celebrate Easter in my traditional manner this year I will have the opportunity to create my own banquet with someone new. It will not be the same exact banquet as what I usually experience but all in the same it will be another type of banquet. I think this is something important to remember as we begin to plan, that all banquets are different and entail different things, depending on the event and the people involved.


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