Lunch and dinner time in Spain

Usually in the Centre and North European countries, their citizens have the lunch around 12 in the noon and the dinner between 5 and 7 pm. This fact doesn’t happen in Spain. The lunch takes place between 2-3:30 pm and the dinner between 9-10 pm, even much later during the summer. 

Why does it happen in Spain and in the rest of the European countries don’t? 

Until 1942 Spain had the Greenwich Mean Time, but since then Spain changed the time to the Central European one. That meant that Spanish people ate one hour later. In addition to this, the summer time was introduced due to the oil crisis in 1974. So, when the solar time indicates it is 12:00, it is actually 13:30 in Spain. All this made Spaniards to eat later than their neighbors in Europe.

On the other hand, Spanish people has a meal between the lunch and the dinner which is called “merienda”, it used to be made between 5-6 pm and it consists of a sandwich, cookies and a juice or coffee. 

However, you can eat at the time you prefer even if you are here in Spain and to be honest, hotels adapt to foreign people schedule time.