The Lee-Jackson Dinner is a tradition celebrated by SCV and UDC groups – but it need not be limited to that. Why not have your own Lee-Jackson Dinner at home? Robert E. Lee’s birthday is on January 19, and Stonewall Jackson’s is on January 21. This next year (2011), that will fall on Wednesday and Friday.
An occasion like this is one that calls for bringing out the silverware and fine china that usually stays closed up and unused. Make it a special occasion.
You could do this as a family or you could invite as many guests as you can accommodate. You could invite your fellow Southerners who may already be familiar with Lee-Jackson Dinners, or you could invite your friends who are only vaguely aware of Lee and Jackson – and educate them in the process.
Why not turn this into a home school project? Assign your children to read and do reports on Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, have them research what a typical “fancy” meal would have been like in the 1860’s, have them learn what children of their ages might have worn then and dress in period clothes. There are all sorts of ways to approach this as a home school project.
What ideas do you have for a Lee-Jackson Dinner? With four months to go, there is plenty of time left to plan a first-class Lee-Jackson Dinner, so mark your calendar and start planning!
If a Lee-Jackson dinner does not fit into your schedule (and it usually doesn’t for us since our church holds its annual Bible Conference at that time), you can plan for a Confederate Founding Day dinner on February 22 – the date that President Jefferson Davis was inaugurated.
