Say Goodbye To Spain's Glorious Three-Hour Lunch Break (citylab.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Is the typical Spanish daily schedule about to change forever? For decades, campaigners in the country have complained that the average Spaniard's habit of keeping extremely late hours and taking delightfully long lunch breaks was making everyday life harder for citizens. This week, change could finally be on the way, as 110 professional bodies in Catalonia have signed up to a plan to change the region's daily timetable by 2025, shortening the classic three-hour lunch break so that employees can finish work earlier in the evening. Such a change would radically reshape ordinary people's lives -- and controversially, it could drive a wedge between Catalonia and the rest of Spain, where the national government supports similar changes (and has adopted a shorter break for public offices) but hasn't yet fixed a timetable for action. You could call the plan an end to national harmony, a blessed release for hard-pressed workers, or an attack on the Spanish way of life. Whatever you do, however, don't call it the end of the siesta. That's because the beloved and much-misunderstood Spanish tradition of the afternoon nap more or less died out decades ago. What remained is a highly distinctive national timetable not found in any other European country, where it has often been read as a peculiarly exotic form of madness. The average Spanish working day is certainly unusual in shape. After starting work between 8 and 9 a.m., hungry workers hold out for a lunch break scheduled as late as 1:30 or 2:30. As if in compensation for this long wait, many then stay off-duty for a break of up to three hours, filling it with a protracted multi-course lunch and maybe a stop at a "nap bar." Most stores and many businesses close down until the late afternoon, before a final burst of office hours between 5:30 and 8 (or sometimes 4 to 7). Spaniards then head home at an hour when most people in other countries are cleaning up their dinner dishes, rarely getting food on the table any earlier than 10 p.m. This pushes bedtime past midnight for many.

Comments

Re:Is there any actual benefit to that schedule?

[HornWumpus]

Practice started before the invention of AC. Too hot to work, so take a nap.

Restaurant hours

[dtmos]

One thing that always bewilders US tourists visiting large cities in Spain is that the posted hours at the typical restaurant has it closing at 5 PM, then reopening at 8 PM.

Conversely, one can always tell if a restaurant caters to tourists: If it's open at 6 PM, it's not catering to the locals!

Adjustment needed

[johnw]

Bear in mind that, because Spain uses central European time, their clocks are between 1 and 3 hours ahead of what you'd get if you used a sundial. Most of Spain is west of the Greenwich meridian, and yet they use a clock time based on them being 15 degrees east of it.

Thus, when they start dinner at 10 p.m., it's merely 10 p.m. by their oddly set clocks. They're really starting somewhere between 7 and 9 p.m.

Re:Adjustment needed

[johnw]

What a peculiar idea. Clock time is entirely arbitrary,

It's not clear what you think is a peculiar idea, but to say that clock time is entirely arbitrary is a ludicrous assertion. Clock time is always loosely based on the position of the sun. Spain is unusual in moving quite so far away from where their clocks would have been before the advent of railways required unified times.

All I was pointing out is that the Spanish don't in fact eat as late in the evening as they appear to.

The rest of your post doesn't seem to relate in any way to what I said.

Has the author ever BEEN there?

[petes_PoV]

The article reads like a long list of cliches, harvested from clippings.
So far as I know, the "nap-bars" mentioned were only in the news recently because one has just opened.

My personal experience is that spanish businesses and most shops open at 10 (local time) until 2. Everybody has lunch at 2 - which depending on whether daylight savings is in effect of not is roughly the local noon, or one hour past.

Small shops reopen at 4-ish, if they reopen at all. Supermarkets are open for the whole day.

Businesses can be open until 9 at night. Although that is still generally before the spanish eat their late meal (the main meal is lunch). And the day ends at about midnight local time - except at weekends and fiestas: of which there are many.

As for being unique? I seem to recall Italy working to the same schedule when I worked there briefly in the 90's.

Excuse me, I'm Spanish and

[fabriciom]

I'd like to clear somethings. The "3 hour" lunch is 4 hours and this depends where you live in Spain. In the big cities (Madrid, Barcelona, etc) all office jobs only have 1 hour lunch, only the public facing jobs have 4 hours lunch. I'm talking about retail stores and such.

Re:Is there any actual benefit to that schedule?

[quintesse]

Ehm, no it's not. You mustn't have been to Spain but I can tell you the hottest time of day is definitely around 2-5pm and in summer you shouldn't be doing any strenuous exercise outside in the sun until let's say 8pm, which is still hours before sundown, when temperatures will have gone done a lot. There are parts of Spain where just walking outside mid-day is an effort and people are most active early in the morning and in the afternoon.

Re:Is there any actual benefit to that schedule?

[thegarbz]

Spain is roughly on the same latitude as the northern half of the US. Spain can get hot no doubt, but to think that the US doesn't or is cooler is pretty naiive or foolish.

As is comparing places by latitude. Climates are a complicated thing. If you want to truly appreciate it then you should check out Gran Canaria (technically Spanish but off the coast of Africa). The island is 40km wide and round. Depending where you are on the island it will either be 20deg and permanently cloudy or 37deg and never see a drop of rain.

Likewise the UK is more northern than Illinois, but it sure as hell doesn't have an average low temperature of -10C during the winter.

You're right of course, but for the wrong reasons.