That is not true.

Oh for God’s sake! There must exist a billion things more important than putting the pudding here or there!!! Do you set your dinner table the way Queen Victoria tables were laid? Nonsenses!!!

@ Why did you watch the video, then?

@@zeyna1881 Absolutely ! A more casual version can be very nice, provided everything is in the correct place. Teaches the children manners, on too of it.

And what about the salt and pepper shakers?

@@marcellacoblentz8433

@@marcellacoblentz8433 In Europe we certainly do not use pepper shakers !!! We want the pepper to be freshly ground so it keeps its aroma - so we use pepper mills.

Sadly sometimes its all show and no Punch.

You pour it away. Either down the sink if you're in the kitchen or into a porcelain slop basin if you're in the drawing room.

nonsense

@ What is non sense ?

@@solangelauthier2381 fork prongs down, what a weird idea. Folding the napkins is to preference, and I've never heard to be supposed to have napkins embroidered with familiy initials. Never mind.

@ I am describing the way it is done in continental Europe. It is quite common to have inherited napkins and tableclothes embroidered with family initials and silverware engraved with family initials too. Antique shops are full of them. So you place things on the table in such a way that these initials are seen and not hidden. And yes, in continental Europe, it is prongs down - which explains you can recognize English silverware and continental silverware : the engraved initials are not on the same side of the instruments. Folding the napkins is not « to preference ». There are usances/traditions/rules. Like « initials embroidered red » (more casual) is for the family, « initials embroidered white » is for guests. Unfortunately when people eat with paper napkins and stainless steel instruments - not to mention bite in their hamburgers… it is another world. Sad, very sad. A beautifully laid table is a pleasure for the eye.

@@marcelmaurer5102 Maybe you have not been hosted at the right homes - or have never been to continental Europe at all, otherwise these traditions that you find « weird « (?) and « unheard of» (?) would be familiar to you. The explanation currently given for prongs down is that prongs up looks aggressive.

Even us nobodies, if we are seen to lay a table correctly, may become somebodies.

It's an uncomfortable amount of items on the table all at once for my taste. I realize there's an "order" to it but to me it's always seemed excessively busy and cluttered, particularly the glasswear "in waiting" 😂

The purpose of a correctly-laid table is to do honour to your guests. Doing it your way, you could dispense with the clean fingers, the plate and the cup and just tear at your raw haunch of mammoth with your teeth.

Just eat like an animal and lick your fingers.

It is the difference between having class and manners and not having them...

@srwatkins Yes, you could be right, but it is better to possess an absolute recognition for the supremacy of God and belief in Him which elevates the soul and enable it to conform to rectitude making all base actions unattractive to it. The sincerity of intention for doing so allows for nobility by way of moral restrictions and sensitivity to the needs of humankind. Furthermore, this is humility and not crassness, and neither does it point to an uncouth culture. The most accomplished person, yet possessing minimal morals, can not be said to be civilized by any means due to superficial accomplishments.

​@@zeenatuumar5592 Enjoy your sanctimony and let us, occasionally, set a lovely table.

Lol

I hope the bed is more luxurious at weekends

I was thinking that but, of course, one would never say ...

I was thinking this is a cheap naf hotel. I’m not having my wedding there.

Calm down??? Comments are usually calling people Karens or say calm down. Get some new material people!

It depends on the country.

Nonsense.

English table-laying etiquette places the knives on the right with blades facing inwards towards the diner.

Fish knives and forks are for common people.

@@kina7128 A Victorian invention. Though what he has laid for the soup is a French soup spoon; an English soup spoon resembles a dessert spoon and the soup is drunk from the point.

@@nicks40 I don't know why you tell me about spoons and their shapes and use - I think you are replying to the wrong person. 🙂 I was referring to the use of fish knives and forks. You won't find these to be set at any royal banquet or tables of the old class aristocrats. Fish knives and forks are for social climbers and pretentious people. 😄

@@kina7128 Because the original poster was talking about soup spoons, which I was concerned to correct, and I pointed out that fish kives and forks were a 19c invention and, as you say, would not appear on any well-laid table.

@nicks40 Makes sense now, thank you.

Yes, you're right, certainly not many of us have formal dinners anymore. I do it at Christmas for my family and to pass on a tradition and culture to my grandchildren. And if my grandchildren were ever invited later in life to a dinner like this, they wouldn't wonder why 2 forks, and so many glasses, etc. ; ))

@katharinatrub1338 I agree that these customs have value, and I'm glad some people are still passing them on. I think that so many parents take their children to fast food restaurants where cutlery is mostly optional that many young people really don't even know the proper way to hold a fork. Now they refer to drinking glasses as "cups," because that's the term used in fast food places. I've taught my kids to set a table correctly, but we are not formal people. They do know how to act when they encounter formal table settings, however! My grandchildren are learning.

@@kathleenstoin671 so very super of you! And our grandchildren o not have to sit on a table like this one every day (ha ha) once or twice a Year can do the 'eyeopening', THEY WILL remember ; ))

'Dining' not 'dinning'. And 'dinner table' is acceptable if referring to the setting of it.