Dinner or Supper?

[Tina]

What do you have?
I grew up eating 'supper', an evening meal  usually after my mother got off work. Supper to me is always an evening meal.
Dinner is what I began calling it as an adult. I am not sure why. But dinner to me is the big meal of the day. It can be a main meal lunch, mid-afternoon feast or the mundane family supper. But that is dinner to me.
What do you call it and why? And is there a difference in your mind?
Just idle curiosity. I'm going to take a nap while I ponder what is for dinner tonight.

[bestofour]

Breakfast, lunch, dinner.  I grew up in California and it was called dinner.  I didn't realize there was a supper til we moved south.

[Tina]

I grew up in California and I and all of my friends had supper. Except for Thanksgiving Dinner and other holiday meals. I think I began to have dinner in my late teens to be a little more highbrow.

[Dianna]

To me, supper means the evening meal. That is how I grew up, too, Tina.

If it is called dinner, I think of it as being a meal around lunchtime.

This topic puts me in the mind of a misunderstanding one time between Jim and his parents. I wasn't going to be here for supper, but his parents were. They were coming in that evening on their annual vacation to visit us.

When Mom and Dad got here, Jim asked if they had stopped somewhere to eat dinner. They replied that they had and he thought he didn't have to worry about feeding them. After about an hour, Mom asked Jim what they were going to have for supper. I think she was planning on starting the cooking before I got there. Jim took them out to eat at Shoney's...

I think I can safely say that Mom and Dad eat the same named meals I do, at about the same time...

(I had gone earlier that day to NC to pick up Megan and Reyla for some reason.)

[Jessica]

I say breakfast, lunch and dinner but I grew up calling it breakfast, dinner, supper.  Around here, that is a farmer thing.  The large meal was always eaten at dinner (lunch).  I'm not sure why I changed but my parents still call it breakfast, dinner, and supper.  Once in a while I will slip in a supper but mostly I call it dinner.

[Jessica]

Dianna, that is a cute story.  Things can be interpreted different ways.

[bayou girl]

as an adult i figured out that you can have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then supper.  dinner is the big meal, and if you have supper, it is usually a lighter affair.

[landofoz]

We've always done 'dinner' and not supper.  In fact, I had never heard it called supper until someone from out of state (arkansas I think) called it that and I thought to myself, what the heck is that?!

[sunsoaker]

I grew up with breakfast, lunch and supper. I haven't called it supper in years. Not sure when I switched to dinner. When growing up, dinner usually meant either holiday, or we were going to a restaurant.

[bayou girl]

I grew up with breakfast, lunch and supper. I haven't called it supper in years. Not sure when I switched to dinner. When growing up, dinner usually meant either holiday, or we were going to a restaurant.

pretty much.  or when we were at relatives who farmed.  they came in for "dinner" in the heat of the day, around 3. 

[Penny]

We have always refered to it as "supper", and even as kid, when you invited someone to eat, you called it Sunday Supper.

[Sunflower]

Breakfast, dinner and supper here. And I agree Jessica it was a farmer thing. At my grandparents, the big meal was cooked in the middle of the day and the evening meal was made with leftovers.

[Tina]

We have changed the face of things with our different schedules. Lunch, the noon meal, is more of a grab and go meal and most get their more leisurely food in the evening. That is where we moms tend to try to tuck in the most vegetable matter into our kids. Although schools and bag lunches we try too. For breakfast we are lucky to sneak in some fruit.
In England they have 'tea' which we think of as a drink and they often think of as a meal. In Spain and some other Hispanic countries they have a midday meal, a siesta during the hottest part of the day, then really 'dine' very late. That is adults; they give the kids a supper and put them to bed.
I was really just interested. On the farms they most often went straight from bed to morning chores and came in to put down a large breakfast. (I read a lot). Then had their dinner sometime in  the middle of the day (hottest part). And snacked through supper later.
We have changed due to different climates and schedules. So 'dinner' is the main meal of the day. And whether you call it dinner or supper, for most of us on most days now it is the evening meal. That is because of our schedules and work days and school days.

[bestofour]

When I first got married the first time we had several friends who farmed.  Sadly to say they couldn't make a living at it after a while and don't do it anymore.  The wives were stay at home wives and cooked a big breakfast and big noon time meal.  They would have home made biscuits at lunch.  I always thought I'd have to take a nap after eating that much food at lunch.  Sometimes they would have fish at breakfast.

[Tina]

A lot of the world has fish for breakfast. In New Zealand they open a can of spaghetti for a nice hot breakfast sometimes. Rarely for lunch or dinner. It is considered breakfast food.
How about beans on toast for breakfast lunch or supper? I used to think that was odd until I ate some. It is very satisfying. Now I often eat beans with toast for that blend.
My daughter had spam for the first time not long ago. She asked me to buy some. I grew up with it but I have rarely bought or served it as an adult. It actually isn't cheap anymore by my standards.

[bayou girl]

spam isn't cheap any  more.  and my kids all like scrambled eggs and rice.  good filipino breakfast food.  and, a funny on rice.  my oldest daughter had a friend who knew nothing about asian culture.  he was invited to an asian family's home for dinner.  he was all about "having fried rice for dinner".  she told him, "will, it won't happen.  no fried rice".  they argued.  he said "i will too" she said, "you will see.  talk to me about it tomorrow and i'll explain"  then, the next day, as he was all crestfallen, she explained that fried rice is what you make with the leftovers of last night's dinner to keep from wasting.  no one serves guests, especially first time guests, their left overs from the night before.  and rice just does not make good fried rice until it is cold.

[bayou girl]

i realized that you have to be wondering why spam led me to fried rice.  but in the philippines, spam is a luxury food.

[Tina]

Our minds have their own logical paths that make prefect sense to us.

[Bonnie]

Breakfast , dinner and supper. it's a country thing.

[UNCLEG]

For use it was breakfast, lunch, supper  Monday thru Saturday,  Sunday was breakfast, dinner, supper.  Or any special Holiday were the meal was in middle of day was Dinner.

[Wrennie]

never heard of lunch referred to as dinner before.
here B, L, & D

[Tina]

See, Wrennie. That is part of why I asked. I didn't know how regional it was.