Because that is what you say in Japanese when you start eating but interestingly it doesn’t mean “Guten Appetit” (basically “have a nice meal”) but “I am (thankfully) going to receive (a nice meal)”. While “Guten Appetit” is about others who are eating alongside you, “itadakimasu” is about the speaker.
Wasn’t itadakimasu religious in origin? Making it something more like the prayer before the food that English-speaking Christians do - “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive…”?
I wouldn’t know. The verb is itadaku which is a humble form of the verb morau, meaning “to receive”. The imasu part is basically just polite grammar. If there is anything religious about it, it’s obscure.
Did you mean itadakimasu?
Because that is what you say in Japanese when you start eating but interestingly it doesn’t mean “Guten Appetit” (basically “have a nice meal”) but “I am (thankfully) going to receive (a nice meal)”. While “Guten Appetit” is about others who are eating alongside you, “itadakimasu” is about the speaker.
Wasn’t itadakimasu religious in origin? Making it something more like the prayer before the food that English-speaking Christians do - “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive…”?
I wouldn’t know. The verb is itadaku which is a humble form of the verb morau, meaning “to receive”. The imasu part is basically just polite grammar. If there is anything religious about it, it’s obscure.