Just wondering is there a reason or story behind many Spaniards' eating timetable? I understand they lunch around 2pm-3pm and dinnertime is at around 9pm. Maybe they need the energy to be at the all night fiestas?? =)

Good question, MarleneMax! It'd be interesting to know if anyone is aware of the true reason/custom for this.

SO MANY PEOPLE have asked me how anyone can eat a meal so late at night, just a few hours before going to bed and I have to admit they have a point. Of course, the late meal is supposed to be a light meal but it doesn't always work out that way. "Going to bed with a full stomach isn't healthy," they say.

The light dinner (I have mine between 10-11pm) is only going to be light if one has a proper merienda - a snack at around 6pm, sometimes consisting of churros and coffee, a small sandwich, a Coke and potato chips, or a small beer and olives. Personally, I go for a coffee and a light snack knowing I'll likely be awake until 1am or thereabouts.

Eating a light dinner/evening meal IS a challenge for anyone not accustomed to it. We (non-Spaniards) tend to have a larger, late meal as a custom. And HOW does one have a LIGHT late meal if going out to a restaurant? The portions are NOT smaller.

Saludos, MadridMan

I agree with MadridMan. Last summer I spent nine days visiting my friend and his family who own a home in Gata de Gorgos, a small town in Alicante Province not too far from Valencia. We'd usually go out for a heavy meal at around 2PM or so. At times this would involve enjoying some of the wonderful paella and local Spanish wine available in that region. Then we'd spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening relaxing possibly at the beach until around 10PM or so when we'd go out for something light to eat. There was a delightful small restaurant nearby which offered over 100 varieties of tapas. After that we'd often return to the beach area for late-night ice cream. It was a lazy man's lifestyle I could very easily get used to.

There are countries of the world in which the people eat in order to live, and then there are those whose peoples live in order to eat. The latter are by far the better vacation lands, and Spain, happily for you, Is among them. The peninsula is a gastronomical adventure, a land where the cry is, "Tapear", meaning something like, "Here's a chance to eat ! Let's get to it !"



Besides the standard three meals, which all but a few dangerous subversives have recognized as a civilized minimum, the Spanish insist on at least a "chateo" (pre‑meal snack) before lunch and dinner, and a "merienda" (high tea) in the late afternoon.



This makes a total of six formally designated eating times per day. But don't be afraid of improvisation. In Spain you can eat and drink all day and three‑quarters of the night; your estimation in the eyes of Spaniards grows as you loosen your belt.



The malter of eating times has long perplexed and disgruntled visitors to Spain. I have spoken to Americans who came back from Spain exclaiming, "I never eat with the Spaniards. They only eat snacks". This is because the Spanish snack times correspond roughly to American meal times. If you want to eat your full meal along with everyone else, when the best cooking is done and the atmosphere is convivial, the secret is to wait, and when you're so hungry you can't last another minute, wait another hour. The earliest permissible eating hours, are: for breakfast, between 9 and 10 a.m.; pre‑lunch chateo, between 1 and 2:30 p.m.; lunch, between 1:30 and 3 p.m.; merienda, between 6 and 7 p.m.; pre‑dinner chateo, between 9 and 10:30 p.m.; dinner, between 10 p.m. and midnight (slightly earlier for theater‑goers).

It's worth while waiting for the proper times; there's nothing so much a bummer as eating in a nearly empty restaurant. if you think you'll have trouble waiting, practice at home before you go.

NOT MY WORDS IM AFRAID :o

its habit forming,and then its natural. When I am back in Spain,it takes maybe a day or two to adjust again to the routine,and then is fine. Living outside you realized what you lose,rush rush no digestion !!!
Thats why i make it a point to make at least one trip to Spain every year ,usually Madrid. De Madrid al cielo!!!

Spain is 43 milion inhabitants and received 55.6 milion tourists in 2005, mainly in spring and summer. It means that there are as many tourists as locals, and this is even more evident in beach towns and tourist places. In addition, in summer the majority of the Spaniards are also on holiday.
So, it could seem that anyone works in Spain and that's by far no true.
Unfortunately many people work much more than 40 hours a week and not allways get paid for those extra hours, they simply have to do it if they don't want to be fired. Siesta is an stereotipe. We only sleep siesta in summer holidays when it's so hot, and is nonsense to go out.

Madrid metro is crowded everyday at 7:30h in the morning, and there are traffic jams everywhere. So it's clear that we awake earlier than 7.
At offices people start working at 8 am and the lucky ones finish at 5 or 6 pm, but the majority work till 7 or 8 pm, some even later.
At schools they start at 9 am and finish at 5 pm, unless they have extra activities like sports, playing music or studying languages.
Shops are open from 9 or 10 am. and closing time is from 8 to 10 pm.

Our eating habits on weekdays are, in general, more or less like this:
For breakfast, many people, like me, have only white coffee. Others have also porras or a croissant or a piece of cake.
At 10 am we usually have a sandwich, a tapa or a cake and a cooffe.
From 1 pm to 4 pm people have a big lunch. We like to eat a two courses menu with wine or beer and a dessert.
From 5 pm to 7 pm some people, especially children have the merienda, consisting of some snack, small sandwich, fruits or coffee.
From 8 pm to 11 pm is time for a light dinner, in general one course only.

On weekends everything is different, it is when we like to eat tapas and drink beers and wine. Then we can have big dinners and enjoy eating a lot, because we party untill late.

The Spanish eating times have not been always like it is today. In the past it used to be like in the rest of Europe. See that our neighbourgs France and Portugal have normal eating times. Even the former Spanish colonies in America have ordinary timetables.
It is not very clear when it changed. Some people think it started changing after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). diario expansion

The Spanish Governement has created "La Comisión Nacional para la Racionalización de los horarios españoles" (National Committee for the Rationalization of the Spanish timetables).
This Committee plans they way to put the Spanish timetables on a level with the rest of the European ones.

They made lots of serious and interesting reports and statistics about the Spanish people habits. They show, for example, that 13% of Spanish people suffer from insomnia, 29% people sleep 6 hours a day or less, 26% only sleep 7 hours and only 15% sleep 8 hours or more.

According to the same Committee, getting up time is around 6 a.m. for 62% of the Spanish population, betwen 6:30 and 7 a.m. for 6% of the people, betwen 7:30 and 8 a.m. for 16% and only 12% of the Spaniards get up after 8 a.m.
Los horarios en España

Another reason to have such a strange timetable in Spain is may be the real solar time. Today in Madrid the solar zenith was 2:12 p.m., in Seville 2:21 p.m. and in La Coruña 2:30 p.m.
real time

Solar time and watch time were the same until the end of the XIX century, when it changed to the present system. By that time Spain was still a non industrialized country and farmers used to follow solar time to schedule their journey.
time zones

Damiàn,
it will be interesting to know when those habits change;because I am an older man and as far as I know they have always been that way; even going back to my favorite grandfather who live to 98 (un buen Isleño) times has not change the way it is now. In fact its a way of life many prefer,and one to the positives for people coming to work and live in Spain. Americans included. and of course, I do eat breakfast earlier than 9AM! and eat dinner real food by 10PM anything in between is tapeo y "snacks".

I do not think the government can make the change happen, but companies will.

In Mexico we had a very similar schedule to Spian..Breakfast 8/9 am, Lunch 2/4pm, Dinner 9/11 pm. Now companies require employees to be at work by 8 so people either do not eat breakfast or eat very early like 6:30 or 7 am. Then lunch around 1:00 pm, which was considered very early before, and people leave work around 6 or 7 pm., to have dinner a little more early than before. So we do not have the same schedule as in the U.S. but every year is getting more similar. However, people still go to bed very late compared to the U.S. So I think traditional breakfast and lunch times will be gone soon, and people will resist any changes to dinner time for longer....Maybe the same will happen in Spain.