When on holiday, foreigners tend to receive judgemental looks as they sit down to have dinner at a restaurant at 7pm. The restaurants at this time are almost always filled with British tourists. This scenario leads us to the question: When do Spanish people have dinner? Although times vary among different families, most people tend to have dinner between 9pm and 11pm in Spain. In my opinion, I believe this is where the English and Spanish culture vary to the greatest degree concerning every-day life affairs.
While on holiday, this structure may appeal to tourists as most tend to go to sleep later anyway, however, the later eating times provoke difficulties for Spanish families when normal life returns. Firstly, because they eat later, they receive fewer hours of sleep per day and therefore may experience consequences on their physical and mental health. Many reports have proved that workers’ productivity is lower than other European countries for this reason. As well as this, many working-parents find it difficult to balance their work and home life. With a 2 hour lunch break, workers usually have to work until 8pm which reduces the amount of time they can dedicate to their children and house maintenance.
The cause of this difference in structure began in 1942 during the Franco dictatorship. He changed the clocks so that they would be in time with Germany; they lived according to the Greenwich Mean Time. They therefore were an hour ahead of what they were before. Franco did this because he had strong ties with Hitler and he wanted to facilitate communication. Furthermore, during the post-war period when poverty struck Spain, moonlighting became very common and many men had 2-3 jobs. For example, one may have taken place from 9am until 4pm and then the second would take place from 5pm until 9-10pm which meant that dinner had to be later. Now you may ask the question, why couldn’t the family eat earlier and the husband later, after he had finished work? This was discouraged by Franco in one of his mottos: “A family who eats together, stays together.”
More recently, there have been many debates about the Spanish structure of the day because of the negative effects that it has had on the family and working life. La Asociación para la Racionalización de los Horarios Españoles has suggested that Spanish time should return to what it was before during the dictatorship in the hope that mealtimes will become more appropriate and difficulties present now will dissipate, but to date there has been no change. So, next time you’re in Spain and you’re thinking about your restaurant booking, you may choose to avoid the disdainful looks and go out for dinner later.
Comments