In contemporary usage, picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors, ideally, taking place in a beautiful landscape. A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food. ... Landscape can mean: The layout of a land area, particularly with respect to its appearance. ...

Formerly, picnic meant a potluck, an entertainment at which each person contributed some dish to a common table for all to share. The first usage of the word was traced to a 16th century French text, describing a group of people dining in a restaurant who brought their own wine. A theory has it that the word picnic is based on the verb piquer which means 'pick' or 'peck' with the rhyming nique perhaps meaning trifle. Picnic File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A potluck or potluck dinner is a gathering of people for a meal where most of the participants bring food to be shared among everyone at the gathering. ... A recipe is a set of instructions that show how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Toms Diner, a restaurant in New York made familiar by Suzanne Vega and the television sitcom Seinfeld A restaurant is an establishment that serves prepared food and beverages to be consumed on the premises. ... Jump to: navigation, search A glass of red wine Wine is an alcoholic beverage that is made by fermenting grapes or grape juice. ... Jump to: navigation, search Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ...

The 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Françoise de Ménage, which mentions 'piquenique' as being of recent origin, marks the first appearance of the word in print. The word picnic first appeared in English texts in the mid-1700s, and may have entered the English language from this French word or from the German Picknick. Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... Events and trends The Bonneville Slide blocks the Columbia River near the site of present-day Cascade Locks, Oregon with a land bridge 200 feet (60 m) high. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Language

• While in British and American English one would say "driving in rush hour traffic is no picnic", an Australian or New Zealander would say "driving in rush hour traffic is a real picnic"; these reversed idioms both suggesting a difficult task.
• In the late 1990s an e-mail hoax spread around the internet claiming that the word "picnic" was actually derived from racist term for a lynching. This claim had no basis in fact. See: Snopes.com urban legends reference page
• In established parks, a picnic area generally includes picnic tables and possibly other items related to eating outdoors, such as built-in barbecue grills, water faucets, garbage containers, and restrooms.

Rush hour in a city A rush hour is a part of the day with busy traffic and hence traffic congestion on the roads and crowded public transport; normally the two periods in a day when people are travelling to or from work or school. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but otherwise retaining the same mindset. ... The picnic tables at Marling School, Stroud, Gloucestershire. ... Jump to: navigation, search A member of the Airpork Crew barbecue team prepares pork shoulder at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. ... A propane gas grill with a custom-built aluminium stand partly submerged in snow in Akureyri, Iceland. ... A water tap In most developed nations water is piped to homes, and is available on tap. ... Flush toilet A toilet is a plumbing fixture devised for the disposal of bodily wastes, including urine, feces, menses and vomit. ...

Law

• Picnicking is sometimes not allowed in amusement parks, etc, because it could damage the turnover of restaurants, cafeterias and food kiosks in the park.
• "Picnicking" in the wider sense of eating brought-along food, may or may not be allowed in public transport.

Jump to: navigation, search Six Flags New England, an amusement park in Springfield, Massachusetts. ... Toms Diner, a restaurant in New York made familiar by Suzanne Vega and the television sitcom Seinfeld A restaurant is an establishment that serves prepared food and beverages to be consumed on the premises. ... Skytrain Bangkok. ...

Related historical events

After the French Revolution in 1789, royal parks became open to the public for the first time. Picnicking in the parks became a popular activity amongst the newly enfranchised citizens. Jump to: navigation, search During the French Revolution (1789-1799) democracy and republicanism overthrew the absolute monarchy in France, and the French portion of the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Meanings of franchise: Full rights of citizenship given by a country or a town, especially suffrage (political franchise) In a wider sense: any right or privilege granted by constitution or statute. ...

Early in the 19th century, a fashionable group of Londoners formed the 'Picnic Society'. Members met in the Pantheon on Oxford Street. Each member was expected to provide a share of the entertainment and of the refreshments with no one particular host. Interest in the society waned in the 1850s as the founders died. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wyatts Pantheon in Oxford Street, London The Pantheon is a building on Oxford Street in London. ... This article is about the Oxford Street in London. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward...

The image of picnics as a peaceful social activity can be utilised for political protest too. In this context, a picnic functions as a temporary occupation of significant public territory. A famous example of this is the Paneuropean Picnic held on both sides of the Hungarian / Austrian border on the August 19, 1989 as part of the struggle towards German reunification. August 19 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) took place on October 3, 1990, when the areas of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, in English often called East Germany) were incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany). After the GDRs first free elections on 18 March 1990, negotiations...

In the year 2000, a 600-mile-long picnic took place from coast to coast in France to celebrate the first Bastille Day of the new Millennium. In the United States, likewise, the 4th of July celebration of American independence is a popular day for a picnic. Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 2000. ... The Champs-Élysées decorated with flags for the 14 July. ... U.S. Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is a document in which the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. ...

Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (Manet, 1862)

Le déjeuner sur lherbe by Edouard Manet, painted in 1862. ... Le déjeuner sur lherbe by Edouard Manet, painted in 1862. ...

Picnics in the fine arts

Perhaps the most famous depiction of a picnic is Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, painted by Edouard Manet in 1862. The term fine art was first attested in 1767, as a translation from the French term beaux arts. ... Édouard Manet (portrait by Nadar) Édouard Manet (January 23, 1832 - April 30, 1883) was a noted French painter. ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

In literature

• From Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood: "...Miss Twinkleton (in her amateur state of existence) has contributed herself and a veal pie to a picnic." (Project Gutenberg Entry: [1])
• In Jane Austen's novel Emma at the Box Hill picnic which turned out to be a sore disappointment, Frank Churchill said to Emma: "Our companions are excessively stupid. What shall we do to rouse them? Any nonsense will serve..." (Project Gutenberg Entry: [2])
• In Fernando Arrabal's Picnic in the Field the young and inexperienced soldier Zepo is visited unexpectedly by his devoted parents. Despite the war setting they have a cheerful picnic together.
• The utopian novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, which was written in 1972, was the source for the film Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky. The novel is about a mysterious "zone" filled with strange and often deadly extraterrestrial artifacts, which are theorized by some scientists to be the refuse from an alien "picnic" on Earth.

Open Directory Project: Literature World Literature Electronic Text Archives Magazines and E-zines Online Writing Writers Resources Libraries, Digital Cataloguing, Metadata Distance Learning Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Classicism in Literature The Universal Library, by Carnegie Mellon University Project Gutenberg Online Library Abacci - Project Gutenberg texts matched with Amazon... Jump to: navigation, search Charles Dickens used his rich imagination, sense of humour and detailed memories, particularly of his childhood, to enliven his fiction. ... The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. ... Project Gutenberg (often abbreviated as PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works. ... Jane Austen, in a portrait based on one drawn by her sister Cassandra House of Jane Austen (today it is a museum) Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817) was a prominent English novelist whose work is considered part of the Western canon. ... Emma is a comic novel by Jane Austen, generally regarded as the most perfectly constructed of all her works, concerning the perils of misconstrued romance. ... Project Gutenberg (often abbreviated as PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works. ... Fernando Arrabal (born August 11, 1932) is a playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet. ... Utopia, in its most common and general positive meaning, refers to the human efforts to create a better society, a perfect society that does not exist (yet). ... Roadside Picnic (Пикник на обочине, Piknik na obochine in Russian) is a science fiction novel written in 1972 by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. ... Boris and Arkady Strugatsky The two brothers Arkady (Арка́дий, August 28, 1925 – October 12, 1991) and Boris (Бори́с, born April 14, 1933) Strugatsky (Струга́цкий; alternate spelling: Strugatski) are Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Stalker is: A person employed on Scottish estates to lead shooting parties in the mountains; the normal quarry is red deer. ... Jump to: navigation, search This page refers to the year 1979. ... Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (Андре́й Арсе́ньевич Тарко́вский) (April 4, 1932 - December 28, 1986) was a Russian movie director, writer, and actor. ... Extraterrestrial, as an adjective, refers to something that originates, occurs, or is located outside Earth or its atmosphere. ... Jump to: navigation, search Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ...

In film

• The film Picnic was a multiple Oscar winner from 1955.
• With Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Peter Weir constructs a film of haunting mystery. Three girls and one of their teachers on a school outing mysteriously disappear. The only one that is later found remembers almost nothing.
• Baji on the Beach, Gurinder Chada (1993). The German version of the film is titled Picknick on the Beach. Nine Indian women of various ages flee away from their everyday life into a joint excursion to the English resort town of Blackpool. A rather unharmonious journey because conflicts between generations raise emotions to a fever pitch.

Jump to: navigation, search Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... DVD cover for the 1955 film, showing stars William Holden and Kim Novak Picnic is a 1955 film which tells the story of a drifter who crashes a small towns Labor Day picnic and romances a girl whos already spoken for. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Picnic at Hanging Rock is the title of a 1967 book by Australian author Joan Lindsay, and the renowned 1975 film adaptation directed by Peter Weir. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Peter Weir (born August 21, 1944) is an Australian film director. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Jump to: navigation, search The Tower, Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in England, on the coast of the Irish Sea. ...

In music

• In 1906 the American composer J. K. Bratton wrote a musical piece originally titled "The Teddy Bear Two Step". It became popular in an 1908 instrumental version renamed "Teddy Bears Picnic", performed by the Arthur Pryor Band. The song regained prominence in 1932 when the Irish lyricist Jimmy Kennedy added words and it was recorded by the then popular Henry Hall (and his BBC Dance Orchestra) featuring Val Rosing (Gilbert Russell) as lead vocalist, which went on to sell a million copies. Teddy Bear Picnic resurfaced again in the late 1940s and early 1950s when it was used as the theme song for the Big Jon and Sparkie children's radio show. This perennial favorite has appeared on many children's recordings ever since. lyrics and audio from the BBC
• "Stone Soul Picnic", by Laura Nyro (released in 1968) It was a major hit for the group Fifth Dimension. cover version by Swing Out Sister

Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Distionary, with definitions, pronunciations, examples... Jump to: navigation, search 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A teddy bears picnic is a party for young children which involves a picnic and to which the children are invited to bring their teddy bears. ... Arthur Pryor (September 22, 1870 to June 18, 1942)trombonist, band leader and soloist with the Sousa Band. ... LeAnn Rimes singing in concert For other senses of this word, see singer (disambiguation). ... // Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... Laura Nyro Laura Nyro (born Laura Nigro on October 18, 1947 in The Bronx, New York, died April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter and singer. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The 5th Dimension is an American soul music and popular music group, best-known during the late 1960s and 1970s for popularizing hits of songwriters like Jimmy Webb, Laura Nyro, Ashford & Simpson, and others, and helping to popularize flower power music with both white and black middle-class Americans. ...

Links

• BBC Food Picnic Guide

• ePicnic Basket - From luxurious Premium Wine Totes and Accessories to sporty Picnic Backpacks and elegant traditional Picnic Baskets.