Feasts of Mythic Proportions
If you think your family Thanksgiving dinner requires a lot of intense planning and a massive grocery bill, you will not believe what some historical leaders pulled off. Throughout history, rulers, emperors, and presidents have used the dinner table as the ultimate tool for showing off their unimaginable wealth and political power. With that in mind, here are 20 of the biggest, most mind-boggling banquets to ever happen in history.
1. Ashurnasirpal II's Kalhu feast
In 879 BC, this Assyrian king opened up his newly constructed capital city of Kalhu. He invited close to seventy thousand guests to celebrate with him for ten days straight. Food accommodations were made for nearly seventy thousand diners.
2. The Field of the Cloth of Gold
King Henry VIII and King Francis I of France met at the diplomatic summit in the summer of 1520. During an event which lasted three weeks, thousands of gold fabric tents were erected. The event was so incredibly expensive that it nearly bankrupted both royal treasuries before any actual treaties were even signed.
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3. Shah of Iran's Persepolis celebration
The Shah threw this extravagant dinner in a desert to celebrate 2,500 years of the Persian Empire in 1971. He flew in the entire staff of Maxim's restaurant from Paris. Along with thousands of bottles of vintage champagne and tons of premium ingredients.
4. Grand Banquet of the Three Emperors
During the 1867 World Expo in Paris, a legendary French chef named Adolphe Dugléré prepared a historic culinary masterpiece for the rulers of Russia and Prussia. The dinner lasted for over eight hours. And was held at the famous Café Anglais and featured sixteen complex courses paired with the finest wines in the world.
5. Banquet of the Chestnuts
This infamous gathering hosted in Rome by the notorious Borgia family in 1501 stands out as one of history's most scandalous dinner parties. After the dinner dishes were cleared away, servants scattered thousands of chestnuts across the floor to kick off a series of bizarre competitive games. It is a prime example of how the Renaissance elite could transform a formal dinner into an absolute circus.
6. Archduke Ferdinand's coronation feast
Ferdinand was crowned King of the Romans in Frankfurt in 1562. The public celebration involved some truly unbelievable food displays. It was a brilliant piece of political theater that ensured the entire population felt included in the royal success.
7. Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee dinner
In 1897, the British Empire celebrated sixty years of Victoria's reign. They did this with a series of massive banquets that welcomed leaders from every corner of the globe. The main royal dinner featured a dizzying array of complex French dishes, which was the height of culinary fashion at the time.
John Jabez Edwin Mayall on Wikimedia
8. Cleopatra's pearl-dissolving dinner for Mark Antony
Cleopatra wanted to prove to her Roman lover that Egypt possessed wealth beyond comprehension. This legendary queen wagered that she could spend a fortune on a single meal. This brilliant theatrical stunt secured her reputation as the ultimate hostess who cared absolutely nothing about expense.
9. The Mayor of Paris's 1900 mega-banquet
During the Paris International Exposition, the city's mayor invited every single mayor in France to a massive lunch to celebrate the new century. Over twenty-two thousand local politicians answered the call. Requiring organizers to set up massive tents covering several acres of a beautiful public park.
The Royal Danish Library on Unsplash
10. The Feast of Belshazzar
This ancient Babylonian banquet is famous for its massive size. But also for its dramatic, supernatural ending. King Belshazzar invited a thousand of his lords to drink wine out of sacred vessels stolen from the temple in Jerusalem.
11. Richard II's massive Christmas feast
This medieval English king was absolutely obsessed with fashion and luxury. Which reflected clearly in his catering choices during the holidays in 1387. He employed hundreds of personal cooks to prepare a legendary feast at Westminster that fed over ten thousand people.
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12. George IV's coronation extravaganza
This British monarch finally took the throne in 1821. To celebrate, he threw a coronation banquet at Westminster Hall that cost millions in modern currency. He wore a ridiculous costume with a massive train and sat before a table loaded with gold plate and exotic delicacies.
13. The Qianlong Emperor's Thousand Elder Banquets
The emperor wanted to demonstrate his deep respect for the elderly and celebrate a prosperous reign. So, this Qing Dynasty ruler hosted a series of massive feasts in the Forbidden City. He invited thousands of men over the age of sixty from all walks of life, including peasants, soldiers, and high-ranking officials.
Unidentified painter on Wikimedia
14. President Loubet's military banquet
In 1900, French President Émile Loubet decided to honor the veterans of the French military. He did this by throwing a massive lunch in the Tuileries Gardens. Nearly thirty thousand soldiers and officers sat at tables that stretched for several miles through the beautiful park landscape.
Jean Baptiste Guth on Wikimedia
15. The Duke of Burgundy's Feast of the Pheasant
Philip the Good hosted this bizarre, theatrical banquet in 1454. He did this to rally support for a new military campaign in the Holy Land. The entertainment included a giant pie that contained a live twenty-eight-piece orchestra playing music.
Studio of Hyacinthe Rigaud on Wikimedia
16. Julius Caesar's triumphal banquets
After returning from his successful military campaigns in Gaul and Egypt, Caesar rewarded the entire population of Rome with an unbelievable series of public feasts. He set up over twenty-two thousand outdoor dining tables across the city. This massive act of generosity cemented his popularity with the public.
17. The wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
When these two iconic historical figures married in 1770, the French court spared absolutely no expense for the formal royal banquet at Versailles. The grand dinner took place in the newly constructed opera house. Where thousands of courtiers paid money just to sit in the galleries and watch the royal family eat.
After Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty on Wikimedia
18. Nicholas II's coronation dinner
The last Tsar of Russia celebrated his ascension to the throne in 1896 with a series of massive banquets inside the Kremlin palaces. Elite guests dined on traditional Russian delicacies. All served on solid silver platters while listening to massive choirs.
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19. The mythological feast of Tantalus
This specific event comes from ancient Greek mythology rather than real textbooks. It remains history's most famous fictional banquet disaster. A wealthy king named Tantalus invited the Olympian gods to a massive feast at his palace to test their divine omniscience.
Ashwini Chaudhary(Monty) on Unsplash
20. JFK's Nobel laureate dinner
In April of 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted a historic dinner. He did this at the White House for forty-nine Nobel Prize winners. While it was not the largest banquet in terms of total guest count, it represents an absolute peak in terms of collective human intelligence in one room.
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