How to Set the Table: Dining Etiquette

Sometimes things can be very confusing, and you can go all through your life without knowing exactly why you do something. Take for example the other day, I was given a medical diagnoses (nothing serious- just a little bit strange) that means a lot of things that I have always done (for seemingly no reason) now make much more sense. I always prefer to lie on one particular side, get extremely motion sick and a number of other weird little things that now seem to be more linked that one would originally think.


This made me think about other things we do without knowing why- like the reason we set the table the way we do. What is the origin of holding the fork in the left hand, and the knife in our right hand? Is there a good reason for it, or did it just come about?! Someone had to decide that this was the right way to do it, and enforce accordingly so that now, we end up with these long standing habits/traditions that we know exist, but we don't really know why. The things I wonder...

I've had a number of requests about etiquette and table settings and so when I came across this website called Etiquette Scholar and this rather informative place setting layout, I knew you would be interested (or am I a dining nerd?!).

Source: farm8.staticflickr.com via E on Pinterest

I'm still looking into the history of the table setting so will leave that for another day but until then, think about all the things you do without knowing why!