Is Sunday Dinnah Still Sacred?

Jamaican Sunday dinnah (dinner) has always been more than just another meal. It is the Christmas of the week: a big, hearty spread that closes out the hustle of the week gone by and sets the stage for a brand-new one. Just as Christmas dinner gathers the entire family once a year, Sunday dinner gathered everyone weekly, filling kitchens with the smell of rice and peas, brown stew chicken bubbling in the pot, and someone in the corner grating cabbage for coleslaw.

Perhaps the real beauty of Sunday dinner isn’t just the dishes themselves, though a plate of rice and peas, a plantain side (green or ripe and sweet), and chicken of some stripe is hard to beat—especially on “two-meat Sundays,” when curry goat, oxtail or some other meat addition might grace the table. It is the melting pot of people that truly makes it special. A Jamaican Sunday dinner was always a stew of its own: mothers, fathers, children, neighbours, laughter, arguments, and love, all simmering together until, like the food itself, it was just right.

Saturday for Work, Sunday for Family

Saturday was always reserved for the work of the week: heading to the market, running errands, washing, sweeping, and tackling chores. But Sunday? Sunday was for family. By the time church was finished, pots were already on the fire. Someone might be in charge of the june plum juice, another watching over the stew, while children were sent to wash thyme or shell gungo peas. The kitchen doubled as a space for laughter, fussing, storytelling, and little Johnny trying to pinch off a piece of meat when no one was looking.

And the tradition didn’t end on Sunday. Out of these meals came the famous “Sunday Monday,” leftovers carefully warmed and packed up for the next day’s lunch. It was a quiet blessing, stretching both food and time while easing you into the demands of the new week.

@tashthemillionaire Sunday Monday Jamaican tradition #sundaymonday #leftovers #jamaicanfood #oxtail #riceandpeas #bbqchicken ♬ original sound – TashTheMillionaire

Slow Erosion of Tradition

But as time goes on, convenience is slowly replacing the time-honoured tradition of long Saturday preparations, from seasoning meat and soaking peas to labouring for hours over a hot stove. Food delivery apps, fast-food chains, and ready-to-cook options are taking the place of the slow simmer of pots on the stove. In Kingston and other urban areas, Sunday dinner is sometimes no more than an item or two from Jamaica’s second-favourite institution, KFC, with fast-food lines now wrapping around buildings.

Whether this is a problem or simply a shift in lifestyle depends on how you look at it. At the heart of the change, however, is the reality of the modern family. Jamaica’s birth rate is among the lowest in the region, family units are smaller, and many millennials now live alone, far removed from the large extended households where Sunday dinner once thrived. With families scattered across parishes and across the diaspora, it has become harder to recreate that crowded kitchen filled with cousins arguing over who gets the last chicken leg.

Where the Tradition Still Holds

Yet in rural communities, the tradition still holds strong. There, you are more likely to find the Sunday table laid out much as it always was, with neighbours dropping by unannounced and children running in and out of the kitchen, drawn by the smell of escovitch fish or curry goat. Even in the cities, though, Sunday dinner hasn’t disappeared completely; it has evolved. Some families host smaller, quicker versions of the old ritual. Others adapt recipes for convenience while keeping the gathering alive.

Still Sacred, Just Different

So, is Sunday dinner still sacred? Maybe not in every household, and maybe not in the same form as before. That’s not to say young Jamaicans have lost interest in cooking; social media is filled with food creators and chefs with large followings, including the sweet granny we’ve all collectively adopted, lovingly sharing traditional Jamaican recipes with a younger audience. At its core, Sunday dinner remains about the comfort of home, the flavour of culture, and the warmth of family. Wherever one or more of us gather over rice and peas, the spirit of Sunday dinner lives on—even if it happens to be a Tuesday.