As I understand it "Vesperbox" is a German term for packed lunch box, why would they call it Vesperbox? Is this a common term throughout Germany?

Vesper means snack and it is a special dialect word in the south part of germany. The german word for "Vesper" is "Jause".

"Jause" is a very Bavarian term. We would just call it "Snack" oder "Happen"

"The german word for "Vesper" is "Jause"."

Yeah right. Which universe with which Germany would that be again?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwischenmahlzeit

In between meal would be the best description, and as it is 'cuter' than just Snackbox, Vesperbox is sometimes used.

vesper:
1) a meal or snack consisting of bread, cold cuts, cheese etc., usually between breakfast and lunch or in the evening (used in southern germany only) - living just 15 km from the southern germany boarder, I myself did only relate the word 'versper' to the late afternoon snack-brake (probably because of definition 2) hereafter
2) [rel.] the sixth of the seven canonical hours

in swiss-german we use the word 'Znüni' (german: 'um 9 Uhr', english 'at 9 o'clock') for the snack between breakfast and lunch. Kindergarden children typically bring with them a 'Znüni-Box' every day.

"Vesper" is by no means a dialect word, but rather a word used in primarily catholic areas. It refers to the "vesper" canonical hour (see Rudi's post). The church bells would indicate that it was time for "vesper" prayers - and most workmen and farmers took that as a sign that they could have a short break and eat what we would call a "snack".

I agree that it is not "dialect" but Latin. However, the use of this Latin word in the sense of a small meal is restricted to certain parts of southern (catholic) Germany. Even if the origin of this word is not dialect, it is used like dialect. Most of the people using it would not think about a canonic meaning; language can develop and become indpendent from its original source.

True, almost only heard in Baden, less frequently in W�rttemberg and Bavaria

Swabians use "vesper" (or rather "veshper")

That makes it interesting as Swabians are historically not under suspect of being catholic, are they?

Altwuerttemberg of course was staunchly protestant, but huge chunks of Swabia belonged to Austria - the territories also known as "the tail feather of the imperial eagle". Not to forget the Reichsstaedte and the itsy-bitsy fiefdoms which also weren't necessarily protestant. Very large monastic holdings especially on the Swabian alb as well. Check out a historical map of the German Southwest in the pre-napoleonic era, before mediatization and secularization - very colorful.
Because of this background, it's probably THE most diverse part of Germany as far as denominations go - frequently one village is protestant and the next one along catholic, and you can just about imagine the clashes you would get in daily life! A real-life story of a farmer woman shopping for a roll of fabric somewhere in the Oberland and disliking the excessive brightness and colorfulness: "No way I'll buy that - that's a Catholic fabric!"
Granted this was some two or three decades ago. A lot of these distinctions have started blurring over the past 15-20 years, and some poor misguided souls have lately even started celebrating carnival in pietist hotspots such as Tuebingen - completely bizarre if you know anything about the background (plus you get perfectly good catholic processions anywhere by driving 20km max).

Back to vesper though - even though there are also distinctively catholic and protestant versions of Swabian (or so I am told by my linguist friends), vesper actually is used in both of them.

(I can't believe this thread is still alive!!)

In Sachsen, we always " haben gefestertmit Gaensefettbemmchen