Fun Picnic Facts and Trivia

Did you know that no one really knows the origin of the word "picnic"? Some believe it is based on the French verb “piquer” which means to 'pick' or 'peck', with the rhyming "nique" meaning "thing of little importance".

Here are some more fun picnic facts and trivia:

• Did you know that a “picnic” ham is really not a true ham? It is cut from the upper part of the foreleg of a pig - a true ham is cut from the hind leg.

• Italy's favourite picnic day is Easter Monday. It is called “Angel’s Monday” or Pasquetta (“Little Easter”).

• After an ant has visited your picinc, it lays down a scent as it returns to the nest for the other ants to follow!

• In the year 2000, a 600-mile-long picnic took place in France to celebrate the first Bastille Day of the new millennium.

• The first table designed specifically for picnics (in a style similar to what we know today) appeared in the late 1800s.

• After the French Revolution in 1789, royal parks were opened to the public, and picnicking became a popular activity for the newly enfranchised citizens.

• A fashionable group of Londoners started a Picnic Society in the early 19th century. Their members were expected to share entertainment and refreshments.

• No one is really sure who invented the hot dog:
  • Vienna traces the lineage of the hot dog to the wienerwurst or Viennese sausage.
  • The city of Frankfurt traces the lineage of the hot dog to the frankfurter wurst, which it claims was invented in the 1480s.
  • Around 1870 on Coney Island, a German immigrant named Charles Feltman began selling sausages in rolls.
  • Anton Ludwig Feuchtwanger, a Bavarian sausage seller who is said to have started serving sausages in rolls at the World's Fair.

• The concept of a Teddy Bear Picnic probably originated with a version of the 1907 music called Teddy Bears' Picnic written by American composer John Walter Bratton.