Ceremonial and protocol in annual military dinners in Spain

Abstract

Eating and drinking are daily vital needs of all human beings. The solution of the problem has varied depending on time, places and social groups.

               The banquet is a social and protocol act that is constituted as a means of communication and an end in itself. For example, from time immemorial we have images of banquets celebrating military victories.

               The celebration of acts by military units has always been distinguished by being subject to rules, often unwritten, and to particular rules of the military establishment as a result of the military way of being, constituting a form of external expression of values, traditions, uses and customs.

               This work deals with the singularities of the annual military dinners. After analyzing the historical evolution of gala dinners in Spain, the general aspects are collected from the civil point of view and the current regulations applicable in the military field. The work ends detailing and analyzing the organization, the protocol and the concrete ceremony of a military gala dinner today.