In some cases each participant agrees ahead of time to bring a single course, and the result is a multi-course meal. The only traditional rule is that each dish be large enough to be shared among a good portion (but not necessarily all) of the anticipated guests. Smaller, more informal get-togethers with distributed food preparation may also be called potlucks. Potluck dinners are often organized by religious or community groups, since they simplify the meal planning and distribute the costs among the participants.
They only had one pot so they cooked the meal together with whatever ingredients they happened to have that day. The term comes from a time when groups of Irish women would gather together and cook dinner. Everyone participating brought a dish for all to share. To the Irish, a potluck was a meal with no particular menu. The sense communal meal, where guests bring their own food”, appears to have originated in the late 19th century or early 20th century, particularly in the Western United States, either by influence from potlatch or possibly by extension of traditional sense of “luck of the pot”. The word pot-luck appears in 16th century England, in the work of Thomas Nashe, and was there used to mean “food provided for an unexpected or uninvited guest, the luck of the pot”.
