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The There are enough references to alimentary customs in ''Pan Tadeusz'' for several blog posts; in this one, we're going to focus on breakfasts. A typical late-summer day in Soplicowo, especially if there were visitors, began with a hunt – a hare hunt, most often, and occasionally for some bigger game. The hunters were all men, who had to rise quite early in the morning for the occasion. The Sunday bear hunt began at 4:30 a.m., although this was probably exceptionally early; a bear hunt required more preparation than chasing hares, plus a holy mass had to be squeezed in before the hunt began. In any case, both Thaddeus and the Count liked to sleep in and were habitually late for the party.
[[File:PT EN.png|thumb|center|500px|Schedule of meals and notable events of the first five books of ''Pan Tadeusz''. Most times are approximate. The Sunday dinner is not mentioned in the poem, but we may assume it took place.]]
Breakfast was consumed only after the hunt. In the case of a hare hunt – which took place closer to the manor house – the men would just return and join the ladies, who had started breaking fast before them. Unlike the more formal dinners and suppers, breakfast took the form of a casual buffet. People would eat standing or seating, without much attention to social hierarchy. The Judge grudgingly tolerated such novel habits. The men's Sunday breakfast, on the other hand, after the bear had been killed, was in the form of a [[Epic Cooking: The Wondrous Taste of Bigos|picnic in the forest]].
