{"id":4181,"date":"2012-04-26T15:02:34","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T15:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalheritage.org\/?p=4181"},"modified":"2023-06-20T13:20:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T13:20:53","slug":"dinner-on-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/2012\/04\/26\/dinner-on-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinner on the Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4186\" title=\"77. Dinner on the ground, Cable Branch Cemetery Decoration,\" src=\"http:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/77.-Dinner-on-the-ground-Cable-Branch-Cemetery-Decoration--e1335452374411-177x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"177\" height=\"300\" \/><em>Dinner on the Ground in the Upland South from Appalachia to the Ozarks, is an outdoor picnic held at Decoration Day events. The term originally referred to eating in a churchyard or cemetery with a picnic blanket spread on the ground. Nowadays, long tables and benches, sometimes sheltered by a pavilion, are used. Outside of this region, Decoration Day takes on different forms such as Homecoming, which also involve a \u201cdinner on the ground.\u201d\u00a0 Other names for Dinner on the Ground are: \u201cdinner spread on the ground\u201d in Arkansas and Texas, and \u201cFeast in the Wilderness,\u201d referring to interdenominational meals on every month with a fifth Sunday within African American churches in Jackson County, NC.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By definition, Dinner on the Ground is a time to share food outdoors with others of all ages in conjunction with a church meeting or ceremony. It is also a time for the women of the church to show off their cooking skills. Throughout the serving of the meal, each woman stays with the dish she prepared and acts as a hostess for hungry decorators, describing and encouraging others to try their food.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Traditional fare include fried chicken, green beans, potatoes, barbecued pork, pickled ramps, and \u201cleather britches,\u201d which are dried green beans cooked with hambone, fatback, or bacon.\u00a0 While all varieties of desserts are enjoyed at Dinner on the Ground, the traditional offering is a stack cake.\u00a0 The traditional stack cake is usually made of a molasses and spice cake, similar to gingerbread, and cut into many thin layers.\u00a0 The cake is then stacked in alternating layers with cooked dried apples or peaches. \u00a0The finishing touch to this decadent cake is a layer of frosting.\u00a0 However, you will occasionally hear the term \u201cstack cake\u201d referring to any variety of cakes prepared in a similar manner.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4185\" title=\"9. Dinner on the ground, Proctor and Bradshaw Cemetery Decor\" src=\"http:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/9.-Dinner-on-the-ground-Proctor-and-Bradshaw-Cemetery-Decor-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"412\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe food is a means of extending family hospitality to others, whether kin, friends, acquaintances, or strangers.\u201d\u00a0 Dinner on the Ground is more than just a time to eat.\u00a0 It is a time for fellowship with loved ones and the community at large.\u00a0 It is a time to remember and celebrate life, whether it be the life of a deceased loved one, or the lives that lie ahead of the children playing while the adults sit and reminisce.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This moment is based on the work of Alan Jabbour and Karen Singer Jabbour. Much of the material is taken from their book <\/em>Decoration Day in the Mountains: The Tradition of Cemetery Decoration in Western North Carolina and the Upland South<em>, <\/em><em>published in 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Radio Moment<\/h3>\n<div class=\"wp-playlist wp-audio-playlist wp-playlist-light\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-current-item\"><\/div>\n\t\t<audio controls=\"controls\" preload=\"none\" width=\"1058\"\n\t\t\t><\/audio>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-next\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-prev\"><\/div>\n\t<noscript>\n\t<ol>\n\t\t<li><a href='https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DinnerOnTheGrounds-Mx1-60.wav'>Radio Moment on Dinner on the Grounds<\/a><\/li>\t<\/ol>\n\t<\/noscript>\n\t<script type=\"application\/json\" class=\"wp-playlist-script\">{\"type\":\"audio\",\"tracklist\":true,\"tracknumbers\":true,\"images\":true,\"artists\":true,\"tracks\":[{\"src\":\"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DinnerOnTheGrounds-Mx1-60.wav\",\"type\":\"audio\/wav\",\"title\":\"Radio Moment on Dinner on the Grounds\",\"caption\":\"\",\"description\":\"\\\"DinnerOnTheGrounds-Mx1-60\\\".\",\"meta\":{\"length_formatted\":\"1:00\"},\"image\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64},\"thumb\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64}}]}<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dinner on the Ground in the Upland South from Appalachia to the Ozarks, is an outdoor picnic held at Decoration Day events. The term originally referred to eating in a churchyard or cemetery with a picnic blanket spread on the ground. Nowadays, long tables and benches, sometimes sheltered by a pavilion, are used. Outside of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[117,166,219,460],"class_list":["post-4181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-culture","tag-cemetery","tag-decoration-day","tag-foodways","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8752,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions\/8752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}