![Picnic in Columbus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Picnic_in_Columbus.jpg)
A picnic is a
meal
A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The names used for specific meals in English vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal.
Although they c ...
taken outdoors (
''al fresco'') as part of an
excursion
An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes.
Public transportatio ...
, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a
park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding an open-air theater performance, and usually in summer. It is different from other meals because it requires free time to leave home.
History shows us that the idea of a meal that was jointly contributed to and enjoyed out-of-doors was essential to picnic from the early 19th century.
Picnickers like to sit on the ground on a rug or blanket.
Picnics can be informal with throwaway plates or formal with silver cutlery and crystal wine glasses. Tables and chairs may be used but this is less common.
Outdoor games or some other form of entertainment are common at large picnics. In public parks, a picnic area generally includes
picnic tables and possibly built-in
grills, water faucets (taps), garbage (rubbish) containers and restrooms (toilets).
Some picnics are a
potluck
A potluck is a communal gathering where each guest or group contributes a different, often homemade, dish of food to be shared.
Other names for a "potluck" include: potluck dinner, pitch-in, shared lunch, spread, faith supper, carry-in dinner ...
, where each person contributes a dish for all to share. The food eaten is rarely hot, instead taking the form of
deli
Deli may refer to:
* Delicatessen, a shop selling specially prepared food, or food prepared by such a shop
* Sultanate of Deli, a former sultanate in North Sumatra, Indonesia
Places
* Deli, Boyer-Ahmad, a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Pro ...
sandwiches,
finger food
Finger foods are small, individual portions of food that are eaten out of hand. They are often served at social events. The ideal finger food usually does not create any mess (i.e. no crumbs, drips, or any kind of mess), but this criterion is o ...
, fresh fruit, salad and cold meats. It can be accompanied by chilled wine, champagne or soft drinks.
Etymology
The etymology is contested. The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' says'' "picnic"'' is "Perhaps of multiple origins. A borrowing from French. Perhaps also partly a borrowing from German."
[Oxford English Dictionary, "picnic"](_blank)
/ref> The earliest English citation is in 1748, from Lord Chesterfield
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, (22 September 169424 March 1773) was a British statesman, diplomat, and man of letters, and an acclaimed wit of his time.
Early life
He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Ches ...
(Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield) who associates a "pic-nic" with card-playing, drinking, and conversation; around 1800, Cornelia Knight spelled the word as "pique-nique" in describing her travels in France.
According to some dictionaries, the French word ''pique-nique'' is based on the verb ''piquer'', which means 'pick', 'peck', or 'nab', and the rhyming addition ''nique'', which means 'thing of little importance', 'bagatelle', 'trifle'. It first appears in 1649 in an anonymous broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
of burlesque verse called ''Les Charmans effects des barricades: ou l'Amitié durable de la compagnie des Frères bachiques de pique-nique : en vers burlesque (The Lasting Friendship of the Band of Brothers of the Bacchic Picnic).'' The satire describes Brother Pique-Nique who, during the civil war known as the Fronde
The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...
, attacks his food with gusto instead of his enemies; Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...
was the Roman god of wine, a reference to the drunken antics of the gourmand musketeers. By 1694 the word was listed in Gilles Ménage
Gilles Ménage (; 15 August 1613 – 23 July 1692) was a French scholar.
Biography
He was born at Angers, the son of Guillaume Ménage, king's advocate at Angers. A good memory and enthusiasm for learning carried him quickly through his lite ...
's ''Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue francaise,'' with the meaning of a shared meal, with each guest paying for himself, but with no reference to eating outdoors. It reached the ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française
The ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française'' is the official dictionary of the French language.
The Académie française is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, although its recommendations ...
'' in 1840 with the same meaning. In English, "picnic" only began to refer to an outdoor meal at the beginning of the 19th century.
History
The practice of an elegant meal eaten out-of-doors, rather than an agricultural worker's mid-day meal in a field, was connected with respite from hunting from the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
; the excuse for the pleasurable outing of 1723 in François Lemoyne
François Lemoyne or François Le Moine (; 1688 – 4 June 1737) was a French rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which co ...
's painting (''illustration)'' is still offered in the context of a hunt. In it a white cloth can be seen, and on it wine, bread and roast chicken.
While these outdoors meals could be called picnics there are, according to Levy, reasons not to do so. 'The English', he claims, 'left the hunter's meal unnamed until after 1806, when they began calling almost any alfresco meal a picnic'. The French, Levy goes on to say, 'refrained from calling anything outdoors a pique-nique until the English virtually made the word their own, and only afterwards did they acknowledge that a picnic might be enjoyed outdoors instead of indoors'.
Pic Nic Society
The French Revolution popularized the picnic across the world. French aristocrats fled to other Western countries, bringing their picnicking traditions with them.
In 1802, a fashionable group of over 200 aristocratic Londoners formed the Pic Nic Society. The members were Francophiles, or may have been French, who flaunted their love for all things French when the wars with France lulled between 1801 and 1830. Food historian Polly Russell however suggests that the Pic Nic Society lasted until 1850. The group's intent was to offer theatrical entertainments and lavish meals followed by gambling. Members met in hired rooms in Tottenham Street. There was no kitchen so all food had to be made elsewhere. Each member was expected to provide a share of the entertainment and of the refreshments, with no one particular host.
Victorian feasts
Mrs Beeton's picnic menus (in her '' Book of Household Management'' of 1861) are 'lavish and extravagant', according to Claudia Roden
Claudia Roden (née Douek; born 1936) is an Egyptian-born British cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist of Sephardi/ Mizrahi descent. She is best known as the author of Middle Eastern cookbooks including ''A Book of Middle Eastern Food'' ...
. She lists Beeton's bill of fare for forty persons in her own book ''Picnics and Other Outdoor Feasts'':
:A joint of cold roast beef, a joint of cold boiled beef, 2 ribs of lamb, 2 shoulders of lamb, 4 roast fowls, 2 roast ducks, 1 ham, 1 tongue, 2 veal and ham pies, 2 pigeon pies, 6 medium sized lobsters, 1 piece of collared calveshead, 18 lettuces, 6 baskets of salad, 6 cucumbers. Stewed fruit well sweetened and put into glass bottles well corked, 3 or 4 dozen plain pastry biscuits to eat with the stewed fruit, 2 dozen fruit turnovers, 4 dozen cheese cakes, 2 cold cabinet pudding
Cabinet pudding, also known as chancellor's pudding or Newcastle pudding, is a traditional English steamed, sweet, moulded pudding made from some combination of bread or sponge cake or similar ingredients in custard, cooked in a mould faced with d ...
s in moulds, a few jam puffs, 1 large cold Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding is sweet dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of ...
(this must be good), a few baskets of fresh fruit, 3 dozen plain biscuits, a piece of cheese, 6 lbs of butter (this of course includes the butter for tea), 4 quatern loaves of household bread, 3 dozen rolls, 6 loaves of tin bread (for tea), 2 plain plum cake
Plum cake refers to a wide range of cakes usually made with dried fruits such as currants, raisins, sultanas, or prunes, and also sometimes with fresh fruits. There is a wide range of popular plum cakes and puddings. Since the meaning of the ...
s, 2 pound cake
Pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Pound cakes are generally baked in either a loaf pan or a Bundt mold. They are sometimes served either dusted with powd ...
s, 2 sponge cake
Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated ...
s, a tin of mixed biscuits, ½ lb of tea. Coffee is not suitable for a picnic being difficult to make.
Political picnics
The image of picnics as a peaceful social activity can be used for political protest. In this context, a picnic functions as a temporary occupation of significant public territory. A famous example is the Pan-European Picnic
The Pan-European Picnic (german: Paneuropäisches Picknick; hu, páneurópai piknik; sk, Paneurópsky piknik) was a peace demonstration held on the Austrian- Hungarian border near Sopron, Hungary on 19 August 1989. The opening of the border ...
held on both sides of the Hungarian/Austrian border on 19 August 1989 as part of the struggle towards German reunification; this mass meal led indirectly to the collapse of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
.
On Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...
2000, as a Millennium celebration, France created "l'incroyable pique-nique" (the incredible picnic), which stretched 1000 km from the English Channel to the Mediterranean, along the '' Méridienne verte''.
Types of contemporary picnic food
Contemporary picnics for many people involve simple food. In ''The Oxford Companion to Food
''The Oxford Companion to Food'' is an encyclopedia about food. It was edited by Alan Davidson and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It was also issued in softcover under the name ''The Penguin Companion to Food''. The second and th ...
'', Alan Davidson offers hard-boiled eggs, sandwiches and pieces of cold chicken as good examples. In America, food writer Walter Levy suggests that 'a picnic menu might include cold fried chicken, devilled eggs, sandwiches, cakes and sweets, cold sodas, and hot coffee'.
Picnics are traditionally eaten at Glyndebourne Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.
History
Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...
during the interval and Roden proposes a Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...
Menu, as made by the Argentinian pianist Alberto Portugheis
Alberto Portugheis (born January 1, 1941, in La Plata, Argentina) is an Argentine pianist, born to parents of Russian and Romanian descent. He is an international pianist and teacher, now living in London. After winning first prize at the Gene ...
: ''Mousse de Caviare'', ''Chaudfroid de Canard'', ''Tomatoes Farcies'' and ''Pêches aux fraises'' (caviare mousse, cold duck, stuffed tomatoes and peaches and strawberries).
Cultural representations
Film
* The 1955 film '' Picnic'', based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same title by William Inge
William Motter Inge (; May 3, 1913 – June 10, 1973) was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s he had a string of memorable Broad ...
, was a multiple Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
winner. A picnic is expected in the film but the writer does not include it: 'There is no picnic in Picnic'. The potato salad, bread and butter sandwiches and devilled eggs are left in the car as the characters Madge and Hal cannot resist each other's charms and Hal says 'We're not goin' on no goddamn picnic'. The film has been remade twice for television, in 1986 and 2000.
* ''The Office Picnic
''The Office Picnic'' is a 1972 Australian comedy film directed by Tom Cowan. It was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.
Plot summary
A group of public servants go on an annual picnic. Two of them, Peter and Elly, disappear ...
'' (1972) is a dark comedy set in an Australian Public Service office. It was written and produced by filmmaker Tom Cowan, who became famous for his work on the series '' Survivor''.
* In Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir ( ; born August 21, 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He's known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), ''Gallipoli'' (1981), ''Witness ...
's mystery film '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), three girls and one of their teachers on a school outing mysteriously disappear. The only one who is later found remembers almost nothing. It is based on a 1967 drama and mystery novel of the same title by Australian author Joan Lindsay
Joan à Beckett Weigall, Lady Lindsay (16 November 189623 December 1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and visual artist. Trained in her youth as a painter, she published her first literary work in 1936 at age forty under a ...
. In 2018 it was remade for television.
* In ''Bhaji on the Beach
''Bhaji on the Beach'' is a 1993 British comedy-drama film directed by Gurinder Chadha (in her feature film directorial debut) and written by Meera Syal.
Plot
A community group of British women (mostly Punjabis of various faiths) of differe ...
'' (1993, titled ''Picknick on the Beach'' in the German version), nine Indian women of various ages flee from their everyday lives by taking a joint excursion to the British resort town of Blackpool. They eat, according to journalist Simran Hans 'a flask of chai, a metal tiffin of poppadoms and sweaty samosa
A samosa () or singara is a fried Indian pastry with a savory filling, including ingredients such as spiced potatoes, onions, and peas. It may take different forms, including triangular, cone, or half-moon shapes, depending on the region. Sam ...
s in plastic Tupperware'.
Painting
From the 1830s, Romantic American landscape painting
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...
s of spectacular scenery often included a group of picnickers in the foreground. An early American illustration of the picnic is Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history painti ...
's ''The Pic-Nic'' of 1846 (Brooklyn Museum of Art
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...
). In it, a guitarist serenades the genteel social group in the Hudson River Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Yo ...
with the Catskills
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...
visible in the distance. Cole's well-dressed young picnickers having finished their repast, served from splint baskets on blue-and-white china, stroll about in the woodland and boat on the lake.
*'' Le déjeuner sur l'herbe'' (''The Luncheon on the Grass'') by Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Bo ...
depicts a picnic. The 1862 painting juxtaposes a female nude
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...
and a scantily dressed female bather on a picnic with two fully dressed men in a rural setting.
*A more contemporary portrayal is ''Past Times'' by Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is an American artist and professor, known for his paintings of Black figures. He previously taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Marshall ...
, from 1997, which depicts a black family picnicking in front of a lake. Two radios laid on their gingham patterned picnic blanket emit the lyrics of The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...
and Snoop Dogg, while figures in the background engage in other activities synonymous with affluent white-American suburban culture.
Literature
* Jane Austen is one of the first English novelists who names picnics. She has two outdoor picnics in the novel Emma (1816). One is in the strawberry garden at Donwell Abbey. Parties, where guests would pick their own strawberries, were popular in the early nineteenth century and Mrs Elton wearing a large bonnet and carrying a basket spoke at length about them. The second is at Box Hill in Surrey. This picnic turns 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...' The food is described in vague terms as a 'cold collation'. While Jane Austen talked excessively about food in her private letters, she was less obliging in her novels. At both of these occasions, in Emma, when food is eaten outside it ends in 'ruffled tempers and hurt feelings' according to food historian Maggie Lane.
* In Alfred Tennyson's poem Audley Court (1838) the picnickers eat dark bread and cold game pie in aspic and drink cider while they sing and chat about their old love affairs.''There, on a slope of orchard, Francis laid'' ''A damask napkin wrought with horse and hound,'' ''Brought out a dusky loaf that smelt of home,'' ''And, half-cut-down, a pasty costly-made,'' ''Where quail and pigeon, lark and leveret lay,'' ''Like fossils of the rock, with golden yolks'' ''Imbedded and injellied; last, with these,'' ''A flask of cider from his father's vats,'' ''Prime, which I knew; and so we sat and ate'' ''And talked old matters over; who was dead,'' ''Who married, who was like to be, and how.''
* In Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood
''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium ...
'' (1870) a 'potluck' meal is described "For dinner we'll have a tureen of the hottest and strongest soup available, and we'll have the best made-dish that can be recommended, and we'll have a joint (such as a haunch of mutton), and we'll have a goose, or a turkey, or any little stuffed thing of that sort that may happen to be in the bill of fare - in short we'll have whatever there is on hand.' But Dickens, Levy argues, 'differentiates potluck and picnic' when he adds that 'Miss Twinkleton (in her amateur state of existence) has contributed herself and a veal pie to a picnic'.
*''The Wind in the Willows
''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and get ...
'' (1908), the classic children's novel by Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as '' The Reluctant Dragon''. Both books w ...
, begins with a much-quoted impromptu excursion; both the idyllic riverbank setting and the lavish provisions are Platonic ideals of the English country picnic. Rat is a well-organised host; a brief visit to his home is all he needs before he reappears "staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket":
'What's inside it?' asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
'There's cold chicken inside it,' replied the Rat briefly; 'cold tongue, cold ham, cold beef, pickled gherkins, salad, french rolls, cress, sandwiches, potted meat, ginger beer, lemonade, soda water.' 'O stop, stop,' cried the Mole in ecstasies: 'This is too much!' 'Do you really think so?' enquired the Rat seriously. 'It's only what I always take on these little excursions;the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it very fine!' ..
Leaving the mainstream, they now passed into what seemed at first like a little land-locked lake. Green turf sloped down to either edge, brown snaky tree roots gleamed below the surface of the quiet water, while ahead of them the silvery shoulder and foamy tumble of a weir, arm-in-arm with a restless dripping mill wheel, that held up in its turn a grey gabled mill house, filled the air with a soothing murmur of sound, dull and smothery, yet with little clear voices speaking up cheerfully out of it at intervals. It was so beautiful that the Mole could only hold up both forepaws and gasp, 'Oh my! Oh my! OH Myyyyyyyyy!' ..
The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank, made her fast, helped the still awkward Mole safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket. The Mole begged as a favour to be allowed to unpack it all by himself; and the Rat was very pleased to indulge him, and to sprawl at full length on the grass and rest, while his excited friend shook out the table-cloth and spread it, took out all the mysterious packets one by one and arranged their contents in due order, still gasping, 'O my! O my!' at each fresh revelation.
* In Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal Terán (born August 11, 1932) is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist, and poet. He was born in Melilla and settled in France in 1955. Regarding his nationality, Arrabal describes himself as "desterrado" ...
's one-act drama ''Picnic on the Battlefield (1959)'' the young and inexperienced soldier private Zepo is visited unexpectedly by his devoted parents. They arrive with a picnic basket, which they unpack 'spreading sausage, hard-boiled eggs, ham, sandwiches, salad, cakes, and red wine on a cloth'. Zapo reminds them that 'discipline and hand-grenades are what's wanted in war, not visits' but they ignore him and invite an enemy soldier to join in their picnic. After wine and lacklustre conversation they start enthusiastically dancing to the pasodoble
Pasodoble ( Spanish: ''double step'') is a fast-paced Spanish military march used by infantry troops. Its speed allowed troops to give 120 steps per minute (double the average of a regular unit, hence its name). This military march gave rise ...
to the music of the phonograph they've brought with them. They are all killed by machine-gun fire. Levy recounts 'The shocked audience sits watching stretcher-bearers remove the bodies, listening to a stuck phonograph needle repeat the pasodoble tune'.
* '' No Picnic on Mount Kenya: The Story of Three P.O.W.s' Escape to Adventure'' (1946), by Felice Benuzzi, is the true story of three Italian prisoners of war who, faced with years of tedium in a detention camp, decide to break out in order to climb Africa's second-highest mountain. "No expedition on the mountain was ever a picnic" Vivienne de Watteville
Vivienne Florence Beatrice de Watteville (1900–1957) was a British travel writer and adventurer, author of two books based on her experiences in East Africa in the 1920s, ''Out in the Blue'' (1927) and ''Speak to the Earth'' (1935). She is best ...
had written in her book ''Speak to the Earth'' (1935) about her 1929 visit to Mount Kenya.[De Watteville, Vivienne, ''Speak to the Earth'' (London, 1935), p.276] Benuzzi's English title, perhaps suggested by this line of de Watteville's, refers to the expression 'It was no picnic', meaning 'It was hard going', but with an ironic allusion to the climbers' meagre P.O.W. rations.
* The novel ''Roadside Picnic
''Roadside Picnic'' (Russian: , ''Piknik na obochine'', ) is a philosophical science fiction novel by Soviet-Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, written in 1971 and published in 1972. It is the brothers' most popular and most widely tra ...
'' (1972) by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
The brothers Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky (russian: Аркадий Натанович Стругацкий; 28 August 1925 – 12 October 1991) and Boris Natanovich Strugatsky ( ru , Борис Натанович Стругацкий; 14 A ...
, 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 artefacts, which are theorized by some scientists to be the refuse from an alien "picnic" on Earth.
Music
* In 1906, the American composer John Walter Bratton
John Walter Bratton (January 21, 1867 – February 7, 1947) was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and theatrical producer who became popular during the era known as the Gay Nineties.
Early life
Raised by his grandmother, Mary Bratton, in New Ca ...
wrote a musical piece originally titled "The Teddy Bear Two Step". It became popular in a 1908 instrumental version renamed 'Teddy Bears' Picnic
"The Teddy Bears' Picnic" is a song consisting of a melody by American composer John Walter Bratton, written in 1907, and lyrics added by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy in 1932. It remains popular as a children's song, having been recorded by nu ...
', performed by the Arthur Pryor
Arthur Willard Pryor (September 22, 1869 – June 18, 1942) was a trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and soloist with the Sousa Band. He was a prolific composer of band music, his best-known composition being "The Whistler and His Dog". In lat ...
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. 'The Teddy Bears' Picnic' resurfaced again in the late 1940s and early 1950s when it was used as the theme song for the ''Big Jon and Sparkie
Jonathan Arthur Goerss (June 14, 1918 – February 24, 1982), known as Jon Arthur, was an American entertainer. As Big Jon Arthur, he was the host of the Saturday morning children's radio series Big Jon and Sparkie. Sparkie, "the little elf from t ...
'' children's radio show. This perennial favorite has appeared on many children's recordings ever since, and is the theme song for the AHL's Hershey Bears
The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town located 14 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg. The current Bears club has played in the American Hockey League since the 1938–39 season maki ...
hockey club
lyrics and audio from the BBC
* ' Stoned Soul Picnic', by Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro ( ; born Laura Nigro; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'' (1968 ...
(released in 1968), was also a major hit for the group The 5th Dimension
The 5th Dimension is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire includes pop, R&B, soul, jazz, light opera, and Broadway.
Formed as the Versatiles in late 1965, the group changed its name to "the 5th Dimension" by 1966. Betwe ...
.
* Roxette's 1996 song 'June Afternoon
"June Afternoon" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released in January 1996 as the second single from their second greatest hits compilation album, '' Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! Roxette's Greatest Hits'' (1995). The single was onl ...
' depicts images of people having fun and eating on a park during a sunny warm June day.
* 'Malcolm's X-Ray Picnic' was a moderate hit for the indie-pop group Number One Cup in 1997.
Gallery
Image:Picnic table on the dock, Lake Providence, LA IMG 7405.JPG, A table on the dock awaits picnickers at Lake Providence, Louisiana, 2013.
Image:Fort Thomas Arizona Picnic 1886.jpg, United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
officers and their families having a picnic at Fort Thomas, Arizona
Fort Thomas ( apw, Gowąh Golgai Gohoshé) is a census-designated place in Graham County, Arizona, Graham County, Arizona, United States. Its population was 319 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The community has an elementary scho ...
, in 1886
Image:Picnic in a wooded area.jpg, Picnic in a wooded area (Harry Walker, photographer, circa 1900–1949)
File:05-01-16 PLL Margo Kane theatre-27 (26175125923).jpg, U.S. university students playing frisbee at a picnic
Image:2013-05-06 17 38 56 Picnic area next to the Nature Center at YMCA Camp Bernie.jpg, Picnic area next to the Nature Center at YMCA Camp Bernie
Image:16 04 001 indian springs.jpg, Picnic shelter at Indian Springs State Park
Image:Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speakings together.jpg, Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
and Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
sitting at picnic table in 2009
File:PicnicTables.jpg, Picnic tables
References
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