November, 03rd - Day of the Sandwich
Today, 03rd November, marks National Sandwich Day, a day in which we pay homage and show appreciation for the "on the go" snack. I, for one, am particularly thankful to the sandwich this year. It has regularly served as my lunch, as I drive between Interpreting assignments.
A few years ago, I visited the town of Sandwich, in Kent, not that far from Canterbury, on the English east coast. I immediately thought the town had some link to the popular snack, but this link is rather tenuous. Wasn't for the last-minute change of heart by the 1st Earl of Sandwich, we could quite easily today be celebrating the Portsmouth.
Initially, the 1st Earl of Sandwich, Edward Montagu, was meant to take the title of Earl of Portsmouth. This, however, was changed, and he took the title of Earl of Sandwich, most likely to honour the Kentish town. At the time, in 1660, the fleet he was commanding was lying off its coast, before sailing to France in order to bring King Charles II back to England.
Obviously, his great-grandson did not exactly invent the sandwich. One of the earliest references to meat being eaten between two pieces of bread foes back to the 1st Century B.C., when the Jewish Rabbi Hillel the Elder started the Passover tradition of putting lamb, mixed nuts and herbs between two pieces of bread. However, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich is credited with making it famous and it is his name that was carried to all corners of the globe to name this easy to make, portable meal.
The Earl was, allegedly, a big gambler, and at one particular long gambling marathon, ordered the snack so that he wouldn't have to leave the table and interrupt his game. Whether the story is true or just some malicious gossip is unclear. It is possible that it was made up, perhaps it was just something the Earl ordered regularly in social clubs. A connection between the Earl and the snack is probably real, though. It is related on an irreverent book, by the French travel author Pierre-Jean Grosley, entitled A Tour to London; Or New Observations on England and its Inhabitants:
“A minister of state passed four and twenty hours at a public gaming-table, so absorpt in play, that, during the whole time, he had no subsistence but a bit of beef, between two slices of toasted bread, which he eat (sic) without ever quitting the game. This new dish grew highly in vogue, during my residence in London: it was called by the name of the minister, who invented it.”
This passage also illustrates an interesting linguistic fact: that language evolves with the passing of time. In the text, we can observe the close relationship between English and the German language before the two languages diverted further apart. It is represented in the way English used to count numbers, similar to the way that is still done in German: "four and twenty hours" (vierundzwanzig Stunden), or twenty-four hours.
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