afternoon tea: is it still done?

[Galician]

Coincidentally, in the southern Appalachians, some folks refer to the midday meal as "dinner" and the evening meal as "supper", while just a few miles away other folks eat "lunch" at noon and have "dinner" after work in the evening. So, if somebody invites you over for "dinner", you might ought to find out what time they expect you.

I was taught that dinner is the main meal of the day. That's why we in the U.S.A. have it in the evening, while in the Old World it is traditionally eaten at midday. This accounts for various things like the custom of the siesta and the Last Supper.

[highland mafia]

I was raised by Northern Irish parents. All be it in Canada. We always called "dinner" Tea. I remember as a kid my friends thought that was pretty funny stuff. Then again when I first started school all the kids at school used to make me say "How now brown cow". All to great amusement!.

But now a days I have followed suit and call it dinner.. My wife and I do try to have a cuppa around 3 or 4 on weekends..She is English and only moved when we were married.

[Downunder Kilt]

At all work places we have a break around 10.00 for morning tea and another around 2.30 for afternoon tea. Depending what industry you are in it maybe be called morning or afternoon smoko. Our midday meal is lunch and evening meal is dinner to a majority of people but some people still refer to it as teatime. As for Devonshire or High teas, a lot of areas that thrive on tourism serve the scones and flavoured tea at any time of the day. In Melbourne CBD there are several establishments that do the complete High tea thing which is a very elaborate and formal presentation of various teas, pastries, sandwiches etc.

[MacBean]

As said before, tea (in London as well as the south coast, not just tthe north of England) was the evening meal. If a later meal was planned and friends were over, then it might be tea and cakes, but I wouldn't say that this kind of tea time was the rule. In boarding schools, evening tea was what we call dinner, and tea was served at breakfast and dinner. In fact, I had to get special permission (and pay extra) to get milk with meals, but that was soon after millk rations ended.

Schools at least also had a break at 11:00 am called "elevenses" which might have included a drink and a boiled sweet (candy).

Tea shops were perhaps more common then than now, and served crumpets, scones, and things I no longer remember. Bovril, Marmite, lemon curd?