Saying Grace at mealtimes

[TheTecknician]

This is something that went on in my primary school (first two years only) nearly fifty years ago and I believe is still a custom among Christians, at least in the USA. I just wondered if it is also a custom beyond Christianity ? Obviously I wouldn't expect atheists to participate but perhaps Jews and Muslims as they are Abrahamic along with Christians?

I'm not religious myself, just curious. Thankyou.

How many other people recited “for what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful” in their heads when reading your thread title!!

Interesting point. Do followers of religions other than Christianity have the same 'speech', as it were?

Growing up we were vaguely christian orthodox and said a brief grace. Lots of muslims where we lived and they said their own brief grace. I think it was something like bismillah which confused me when I hear Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time. Everyone just muttered their own thing. We don't say a religious grace at home but started saying together thanks for this meal before eating in an effort to cultivate a bit of gratefulness towards the providers and preparers of the food (aka us parents!).

I just wondered if it is also a custom beyond Christianity ?
It certainly is amongst Jews. I worked for an Orthodox family when I was student, and grace was said before and after meals - the grace after a meal that includes bread is a long one. There is also a grace that is said before drinking wine.

I have never heard anyone say 'grace' at a meal. Mid 60s from England.

My parents still do

Still a thing in Catholic Irish primary schools...before and after eating!

I went to boarding school. We sang grace, in Latin, before every meal. 3 meals a day 7 days a week. With a special long one on special days and sunday lunchtime

My daughter learned to say grace at her bog-standard state primary (not a C of E one). She wanted to say it at home too, and this is what she had learned: 'For what we are about to receive, may the lord be truly thankful'.

One of my close friends is a vicar and my DD adores her. She came round for dinner once and DD said ‘I earned a grace Rev XXX, Daddy taught it to me’. Before I could stop her she chanted out ‘Good food, Good meat, Good Lord, Let’s eat’. Hahaha DH must have taught her that.
Friend thought it was hilarious.

@ShoAndSew I went to a boarding school (as a day girl) with long and short graces sung in Latin too! It's one of the first things we learned on starting at the school. I learned by rote because I didn't study Latin.

(We also sang Adeste Fideles instead of O Come All Ye Faithfulaway Christmas )

oh we did too, in fact i never sing Adeste Fideles in English!

(it was in Bristol - i was there 70s/80s. It was very... traditional)

I don't remember saying Grace at my state primary in 90s England. We did sing Grace before meals on Brownie Pack Holiday though. We had loads of different ones. I loved it.

DS said Grace before lunch at his school in 2010s. But it was a CofE school.

We sing Grace before our monthly Church lunch.

At my Jewish school we said a Blessing (not a Grace) before the meal, and sang Grace after the meal. Neither are anything like the "For what we are about to/have received..." Grace that seems to be standard among most Christians. They are more like a straightforward "Thank you, God, for creating food". The sung Grace goes into far more detail, acknowledging God's place in our lives on a wider scale.

@Ifailed genuine question....but how would you know if people say Grace in their homes?

Just to point out, it’s a prayer, rather than a “speech”. And it’s “…may the Lord make us truly thankful”, although completely understandable that a child might mishear or misremember part of it of course.
I think we may have said grace at primary school now you mention it.
I’ve since said it at church functions, Oxbridge colleges (Latin versions), and in some Christian homes.

I've heard it in households of devout Christians; also at a couple of weddings of regular churchgoers.

I don’t say it but I do like The Selkirk Grace.

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be Thankit!

And may the pigs have the guts to eat it!

Was the jokey finish at my school

@Needmorelego all @Ifailed was saying was that they hadn’t ever heard it said personally?

An American born-again Christian friend says something along the lines of "We thank you, Lord, for this food, and for the work to made it, and ask you to bless it to our bodies." Which I think is quite a nice Grace. They drop any mention of Jesus in the Grace when we eat with them. Which I think is even nicer, because we can therefore join in and say "Amen" with sincerity. Not that they have said that they do this! One of the younger children once gave it away by automatically reciting their full Grace, and then getting all confused when she realised what she was doing.

Grace is still daily at my daughters Church of England secondary school

That’s so sweet of them @Dilbertian

@JanFebAndOnwards yes but I meant just because she's never heard it literally how does she actually know that people don't say it at home.
It was just a curiousity question.

I have lived in 2 different Muslim countries where people expressed gratitude for the food after eating rather than before.