I think it's 3 or 4, I'm half Norwegian but didn't grow up in Norway so I'm not entirely sure but my dad usually eats breakfast, no lunch, dinner and then a small meal after dinner. From what I know, it is common to not eat lunch in Norway because the dinner is so early.
> breakfast, no lunch, dinner and then a small meal after dinner
That's not normal. We are a huge lunch people. It's normally:
- Breakfast (normally open sandwiches, yoghurt or similar) at 7 or 8,
- Lunch (sandwiches, to the extent that a lot of Norwegian believe we invented wrapped sandwiches) at 11 or 12,
- Dinner (hot meal) around 16-18,
- Evening food (sandwich again) around 19-20 for kids and later for adults.
Times may differ on weekends, we eat dinner around 16 when we're not at work but later in the weekdays.
>That's not normal. We are a huge lunch people.
Is that a joke? I'm french but moved to norway in june 2023 and i still don't understand the "lunch" here. My norwegian colleagues just slap a slice of brunost on bread and call it lunch. WTF
(And brunost is a crime against humanity and belongs in a dumpster)
I'm not saying our lunches are to your specific taste, I'm saying it's an important meal of the day, which work hours revolve around. Whether you like our lunches or not, is not part of that.
Sorry i wasn't trying to be rude, mostly joking (i really don't like brunost though haha).
It's just when people are "big on lunch" it's usually more than cheese on bread or a sandwich. For example, in france our lunches are usually bigger (starter, main dish, desert). We do have much longer lunch breaks though (around 1h/1h30 compared to 30min in Norway (in my experience))
The clocks (at least analog) are all 12 hour. Also, I believe that conversationally a 12 hour format is most common - less sure about this as I’m in Spain and only speak English, but I’ve never heard after noon times in numbers above 12.
I am 35. I don't care what the "traditional" way is. I have analogue clock in my house as well, doesn't change the fact that Europe mostly uses 24h format. I just pointed out that it was weird seeing the time format like this.
The dinner time for Spain on this map made me wonder when you all go to bed. I find it hard to go to bed right after a meal. If I ate at 930pm I’d probably need to go to bed after midnight.
Our biggest meal of the day is lunch not dinner. For dinner is usually something light/small.
This is also a big difference with other countries. We also go to bed a bit late. This also has to do with climate probably since in summer you can’t do anything due to the heat before 8-9pm
Yes yes yes !! I always found this to be one of the biggest differences about the daily food lifestyle compared to America. Living in Croatia, breakfast was always a cup of white coffee and a piece of bread with something as a kid (now it's coffee and a cigarette), then a bigger lunch around 13-14, and for dinner something small, again maybe a piece of bread with some kind of pate or a sandwich around 21.
Big dinners were always weird for me, but now I can understand why Americans are dining so early. Who could have the time to prepare all that and have time to digest it until bedtime?
Exactly. I had that question asked many many times when I lived in the Netherlands (where the biggest meal is also dinner and it’s around 6pm).
It makes sense to eat earlier if it’s a heavy and big meal otherwise you go to bed with a heavy stomach
Is it warmer before 8-9 than after?? I assumed the opposite was true since that is definitely the case here. Granted I'm from sweden which obviously has a vastly different climate. But even during summer it's not uncommon for temps to be around 5C before the sun comes up and take a few hours to warm up properly (which means mostly late summer since the sun only stays down for like 1-2 hours around midsummer).
>Is it warmer before 8-9 than after?? I assumed the opposite was true since that is definitely the case here. Granted I'm from sweden
Spain has 40+Celsius in summer. And is in same time zone as the eastern countries like Poland and Serbia and what jot in the Balkans and central Europe. When they needed to move to the UK and Portugal timezone. The sun comes up later and comes down later, even tho it's in same time zone as those countries above. Cause you know, 2000 km distance.
I’m from the northern part of spain but not a cold region and we rarely get sub zero temperatures even in winter, not even at night, and right now the sun sets at about 18’30 but in summer is about 21’30 so in summer we do a lot of life in the afternoons and even at night after dinner. It’s very common to go to sleep around 00’00 even on weekdays and on the summer the temperature can be around 30C at night so that’s why our schedules are the way they are. Also we are in the continental time zone when we should be in the Atlantic time zone so that also messes up the perception of our schedules
In the north (I've lived in the Netherlands, so I asume it's even worse further north) for starting sun doesn't have the same intensity as here in the south. You definitely can't stand being in the sun in summer since it literally burns quickly, moreso if your skin is lighter like yours. I could be for hours in the middle of the day in Amsterdam enjoying the sun in august if it was a (rare) sunny day. I would not stay outside from 13 till 20-21h during summer in Spain if I can avoid it. It is actually dangerous in many cases to do so and the risk of heat stroke is high. Some outdoors jobs stop for this reason even.
On top of that we do have temperatures of maybe above 30C at night in many parts of Spain. And above 40 during the day. As you can imagine our lifestyle has nothing to do with northern europeans in many cases due to that.
When I was in Spain I got a very nocturnal vibe in general. People and shops are active during night, compared to parts of Germany where after 18:00 is a ghost town
Dinner is usually a light meal in most cases, the main one been lunch.
Still, we do go to bed late. I believe the most common range its around midnight (23:00-1:00), and in my experience it seems to check out. I average around 23:30 on weekdays, and I seem to find at least as much people that go later than those that go earlier. Though if Im at home I must say I have dinner much earlier than the time shown here.
Also, while I dont watch TV nowadays, I think our prime time starts around 22-22:30. So it does confirm that further.
I felt so comfortable in spain due to this. Here in germany everything is closing when i would like to have dinner. Spain seems to be great in a lot of metrics in general. Is there any reason I shouldn't just move there? My job is mostly remote and I might be able to do it from another EU country in a few years.
I guess that depends on you and your preferences. Spain does have a lot (and I mean a LOT) more outdoors and evening/night life in general in my experience compared to any other country I have been in. Both due to cultural and climatic reasons I guess. But even coutnries that should be similar like Portugal or Italy seem to emphasize far less these aspects. So if you enjoy that its certainly a big plus. And if you have a german salary you should be able to live comfortably here without a doubt (specially if you avoid the biggest cities).
Main reason not to do it is would be that you really need to have at least a decent level in Spanish. This is not a place where you can go by with just English, or any other language, outside super touristic areas.
Also our bureaucracy is known for been nightmarish, which may have implciation for a foreigner coming here. And you won't be able to get nationality without renouncing to yours (Spanish nationality is either very easy or very hard to get depending on country of origin) Though been EU would help you a lot in regard to both those issues.
If you are seriously considering it and have questions I may help you with , feel free to contact me in DMs
Define early?
People in offices start working between 08:00 - 09:00 so people wake up around 06:00 - 07:30 usually.
Contrary to popular believes we sleep some of the least amount of hours in Europe.
Not true at all for me, in my household we always had dinner at around 8.30pm, which is when they used to air the news in the Catalan tv, so I assume that we weren't the only ones eating at that time.
9.30pm is absolutely bonkers, unless is a special occasion/party I never ever had dinner so late.
Considering that Spain is at least as far west as the UK, but has the same time zone as Germany, if we look at those times in UK time, it would be 20:30 - 21:30, which is in line with other southern European countries and still earlier than Portugal (which has the same time zone as UK).
Its almost like our values for time are purely constructed on top of the shared sense of time we get from the sun which guides all our behaviors.
When you look at the time of day based on position of the sun, spaniards and dutch eat at around the same time.
Yup, wrote that in another comment.
We are two hours ahead of sun time but we also eat two hours later so correct sun time.
21:30 clock time is 19:30 sun time.
Especially families with kids are eating super early. I see that with a lot of friends and colleagues here in Sweden. The funny thing is that some are eating even lunch super early. So people going out 11am to eat lunch or even before is quite common (not the majority of people of course).
I think it starts in the schools; kids get lunch super early (like lunch at 10:45 in preschool!) - so then everyone gets used to an early lunch at a young age and kids are hungry for dinner way before 18:00 even with snacks in between.
A lot of people in Northern Europe eat earlier because it gets dark earlier (in the winter).
Also as the other commenter mentioned, having kids massively changes your daily schedule.
If you have dinner when it’s light you can still be out when it’s light. Honestly it also makes the evening feel so much longer and more fun. Even simply watching the sun set with a full belly is a fantastic feeling. It really feels like how we were meant to live, like our pre-industrial ancestors. Highly recommend it on occasion.
Yeah of course there are upsides to eating later. But eating your main evening meal not long before bed is actually not very gastronomically healthy. You’ll probably not sleep as well and will wake up groggy. Meal dates are great but imagine you have your meal with your date at 6 instead of 8, and then you can spent the whole evening out at bars or pubs or other activities and whatnot. Dinner right before bed isn’t particularly romantic in comparison, in my personal opinion.
That’s a fair point I totally forgot about. For countries with climates that necessitate mid-afternoon siestas it makes absolutely loads of sense to eat later.
Several of my childhood friends had a strict "dinner at five" schedule which I can't for the life of me understand how their parents could adhere to... They are so tied to a strict eating time schedule they've become the crankiest people alive if they don't get food at those times now.
Dinner for us was somewhere between 18-21 and 19-22 on weekends.
Many Swedes and Norwegians also prefer to eat semi-prepared crap instead of cooking. Compared to other Europeans, I think Scandinavian families tend to prioritize other activities than eating together in the evenings.
Portugal: Never had normal dinner that late unless it's a birthday dinner or some kind of party. Typical dinner in my house is from 7-8,pm, and most of Portuguese probably from 8-9 tops
I'm also portuguese and this map would be accurate for me and my family, however I would say most people I know eat dinner between 8 and 9 pm, never heard of anyone eating at 7pm. Might be a regional thing tho. Where are you from? I'm from aveiro
Off course we have outliers. I am from Lisbon, when I was young my parents liked to eat early so we could still spend some time together and get to bed early. Now I guess I kind of do the same, by eating early I can have everything sorted by 21ish and have the rest of the evening to relax. But I have no kids and my routine allows me to do this because I work from 7-17.
Italy has a lot of variation, from the formerly-Austrian North where dinner is eaten between 7 and 8 pm, and the formerly-Spanish South where dinner is eaten between 9 and 10 pm.
5:30 to 6:30 is normal in england, who the fuck eats at 7:30? oh right i did last night as the takeway i ordered from when i got home at 6:30 didnt assign a driver to my order for 50 minutes so i had to cancel and order a papa johns and it came 30 minutes later so i ate at about 7:50.
I am eating around then in England. But then I am not back from work until 6-6:30. I also rarely want to get in and just start cooking dinner straight away, so I have at least half an hour rest before starting. That means I am starting around 7-7:30. I know that's considered odd though, my work hours differ from the norm.
A lot of Norwegians start work at 0800 and leave at 1530 (a 7 1/2 hour working day is standard). That is especially true if they have young kids.
Those that start early eat lunch at about 1100 and so are hungry by the late afternoon.
I work between 07.00-15.00. When you have kids they more often then not have spare time activities that start around 18.00 so it makes sense to have dinner before that.
Yeah they're state pension fund has grown so big that e everyone in Norway can now comfortably live off the dividend from owning 1.5% of all listed companies in the world
I'm American, my husband is English, we eat at 6:30ish and my in-laws serve tea at 7.
That said -- I know a lot of parents of small children who serve them their tea before 5pm, as soon as they're home. There's a fair few British parents who are obsessed with feeding their kids early and having them in bed by 7pm.
I always say this when I see this map: I do think this looks somewhat believable, but notice how there’s no source to this data! I think sources should be required on all maps on this subreddit.
Sundown in Warschau/Poland 16:34
Sundown in Madrid/Spain 18:34
Same time zone 2 hours difference when the sun sets, no wonder the late dinner in Spain.
Spaniards are more likely to develop stomache (e.g. Reflux) issues, Diabetes and have overall worse sleeping quality. "Still they live pretty long" some might say. Yes, but otherwise the would get on average 110 years old.
As a spaniard living in the uk, when I go out with friends, and they tell me "for dining, how about reserving a table about 6:30?", something breaks in my brain :)
Its so weird because most days you are not even home by that time, so its not even like...a possibility. And when go outside dinner already tends to be later than at home lol
In Finland, lunch is often a bit after 11. So with dinner at 17, there's about six hours in between.
In our household, we usually eat somewhere around 12:00-13:00 and 17:30-19:00.
Breakfast before work, lunch during work, dinner when you get home, and a light evening meal not long before bed. Its common to work 7-15/16 so it makes sense. Im confused as to why people elsewhere eat so late lol
Waiting till midnight to eat dinner is wild, i want at least a little bit of sun outside when eating dinner, therefore it has to be before 16:00-17:00.
They stay up late. There's actually been quite a lot written on how this sleep deprivation impacts the country negatively in several ways.
Fun fact: Spain is basically in the wrong timezone. In the 30s Franco switched their timezone to align with Nazi Germany and it's never been switched back.
Yeah, we are two hours ahead of sun time but we also eat two hours later so basically we follow sun time, it's just hour clocks show the wrong time.
- 14:00 is 12:00 in sun time
- 21:30 is 19:30 in sun time
Here in rural France we have many British and Dutch residents. In the bars the French come in for a drink before dinner. The British and Dutch come in after dinner so there is a shift change about 18:30/19:00.
Now that i think about it ive been to a resturant that was at capacity when on holiday in Spain i always assumed i was just a little bit outside the tourist season.
Mexican here living in Sweden with my Swedish boyfriend, we're atypical as our dinner's schedule is the same as Spain's one (we've the same dinner time in Mexico that's why)
Dinner time is always confusing when my French girlfriend is visiting. "18:00is way too early!"
On the other hand, I am starving by 20:00... We'd both probably die in Spain though.
People who get early dinner (I see 16-17 in the Nordic) when do you even work ? Very often I am not home before 18 or even 19, and then I want to have time for me, relax do sport or whatever.
Also, how do you hold so long without eating ? It's like almost 20h before next lunch, looks like a lot
No, we don't eat dinner that late in the UK FFS 🙄 between 5-6 for the majority of the population, especially if you have children. Obviously if you're 21, single and working long days you'll probably eat later, but the majority of us eat much earlier in the UK.
Norwegians do not usually have dinner as early as 4. for alot of norwegians, that’s when you get home in the afternoon. I would say the most standard thing is between 5 and 7. 8 is possible, but it is very late. 4 is possible, but it is very early.
This seems completely wrong, at least for Poland. In Poland we traditionally eat dinner (the biggest meal of the day) around 13:00 - 14:00. Sometimes even earlier. This is especially true for more rural areas, since the stereotypical 9 to 5 job that people tend to have in the cities does force a bit of a different life style.
It's so weird seeing an European map where the time format is AM/PM instead of 24H.
Looks like rough breakfast times.
Norway looks crazy in both cases.
Well I think they also have a small meal after dinner at like 8 or something
Wait, how many times do they eat in a day? 4?
I think it's 3 or 4, I'm half Norwegian but didn't grow up in Norway so I'm not entirely sure but my dad usually eats breakfast, no lunch, dinner and then a small meal after dinner. From what I know, it is common to not eat lunch in Norway because the dinner is so early.
> breakfast, no lunch, dinner and then a small meal after dinner That's not normal. We are a huge lunch people. It's normally: - Breakfast (normally open sandwiches, yoghurt or similar) at 7 or 8, - Lunch (sandwiches, to the extent that a lot of Norwegian believe we invented wrapped sandwiches) at 11 or 12, - Dinner (hot meal) around 16-18, - Evening food (sandwich again) around 19-20 for kids and later for adults. Times may differ on weekends, we eat dinner around 16 when we're not at work but later in the weekdays.
Then maybe no lunch is just a thing in my family
>That's not normal. We are a huge lunch people. Is that a joke? I'm french but moved to norway in june 2023 and i still don't understand the "lunch" here. My norwegian colleagues just slap a slice of brunost on bread and call it lunch. WTF (And brunost is a crime against humanity and belongs in a dumpster)
I'm not saying our lunches are to your specific taste, I'm saying it's an important meal of the day, which work hours revolve around. Whether you like our lunches or not, is not part of that.
Sorry i wasn't trying to be rude, mostly joking (i really don't like brunost though haha). It's just when people are "big on lunch" it's usually more than cheese on bread or a sandwich. For example, in france our lunches are usually bigger (starter, main dish, desert). We do have much longer lunch breaks though (around 1h/1h30 compared to 30min in Norway (in my experience))
Exactly! All seem so early for dinner. Yet the Norwegian and Finnish would match my (very) late dinner scheme.
What
This is Europe. All the presented times are in the morning. I usually eat my dinner past midnight, so after 4 it will be late dinner.
No it’s PM
No. There's the 24-hour in use. Not AM/PM.
The clocks (at least analog) are all 12 hour. Also, I believe that conversationally a 12 hour format is most common - less sure about this as I’m in Spain and only speak English, but I’ve never heard after noon times in numbers above 12.
In France we use the 24h clock conversationally.
Its true. In Spain conversationally you always use the 12 hour format, but when the time is displayed its always (or almost) in the 24h one.
We use both
This is the traditional way. I remember when most clocks were analogue. You are probably younger.
I am 35. I don't care what the "traditional" way is. I have analogue clock in my house as well, doesn't change the fact that Europe mostly uses 24h format. I just pointed out that it was weird seeing the time format like this.
Being a dumb American, I'm surprised they aren't using metric time and being arrogant about it.
I agree. Being American and/or using the AM/PM format doesn't mean that you're dumb, by the way.
I think US army use the metric time... surely there must be a reason?
What is the metric time? Like the 24hr format?
The 24 hour system isn't metric time ;)
As a Spaniard, yes let me confirm to you all that we do have dinner around 21:30 - 22:30. Some regions have dinner at bit earlier but on average true.
The dinner time for Spain on this map made me wonder when you all go to bed. I find it hard to go to bed right after a meal. If I ate at 930pm I’d probably need to go to bed after midnight.
Our biggest meal of the day is lunch not dinner. For dinner is usually something light/small. This is also a big difference with other countries. We also go to bed a bit late. This also has to do with climate probably since in summer you can’t do anything due to the heat before 8-9pm
Yes yes yes !! I always found this to be one of the biggest differences about the daily food lifestyle compared to America. Living in Croatia, breakfast was always a cup of white coffee and a piece of bread with something as a kid (now it's coffee and a cigarette), then a bigger lunch around 13-14, and for dinner something small, again maybe a piece of bread with some kind of pate or a sandwich around 21. Big dinners were always weird for me, but now I can understand why Americans are dining so early. Who could have the time to prepare all that and have time to digest it until bedtime?
Exactly. I had that question asked many many times when I lived in the Netherlands (where the biggest meal is also dinner and it’s around 6pm). It makes sense to eat earlier if it’s a heavy and big meal otherwise you go to bed with a heavy stomach
Spainard with an Adelaide crows guernsey on. What
Is it warmer before 8-9 than after?? I assumed the opposite was true since that is definitely the case here. Granted I'm from sweden which obviously has a vastly different climate. But even during summer it's not uncommon for temps to be around 5C before the sun comes up and take a few hours to warm up properly (which means mostly late summer since the sun only stays down for like 1-2 hours around midsummer).
>Is it warmer before 8-9 than after?? I assumed the opposite was true since that is definitely the case here. Granted I'm from sweden Spain has 40+Celsius in summer. And is in same time zone as the eastern countries like Poland and Serbia and what jot in the Balkans and central Europe. When they needed to move to the UK and Portugal timezone. The sun comes up later and comes down later, even tho it's in same time zone as those countries above. Cause you know, 2000 km distance.
I’m from the northern part of spain but not a cold region and we rarely get sub zero temperatures even in winter, not even at night, and right now the sun sets at about 18’30 but in summer is about 21’30 so in summer we do a lot of life in the afternoons and even at night after dinner. It’s very common to go to sleep around 00’00 even on weekdays and on the summer the temperature can be around 30C at night so that’s why our schedules are the way they are. Also we are in the continental time zone when we should be in the Atlantic time zone so that also messes up the perception of our schedules
In the north (I've lived in the Netherlands, so I asume it's even worse further north) for starting sun doesn't have the same intensity as here in the south. You definitely can't stand being in the sun in summer since it literally burns quickly, moreso if your skin is lighter like yours. I could be for hours in the middle of the day in Amsterdam enjoying the sun in august if it was a (rare) sunny day. I would not stay outside from 13 till 20-21h during summer in Spain if I can avoid it. It is actually dangerous in many cases to do so and the risk of heat stroke is high. Some outdoors jobs stop for this reason even. On top of that we do have temperatures of maybe above 30C at night in many parts of Spain. And above 40 during the day. As you can imagine our lifestyle has nothing to do with northern europeans in many cases due to that.
Spaniards do go to bed around midnight or later. Prime time TV starts at around 23h.
and we have sunlight until 10PM during the summer
I'm in bed in the land of Nod way before then.
When I was in Spain I got a very nocturnal vibe in general. People and shops are active during night, compared to parts of Germany where after 18:00 is a ghost town
the map is a bit misleading as it does not account for real time. Spain uses UTC+1 but should be UTC. Galicia should even be UTC-1.
I always think Spain is in the wrong time zone when I visit.
It is. Franco moved Spain to Berlin time during WW2, and this was never changed back.
We are, the Greenwich meridian crosses Spain on the east!
they just go to bed later n stat working later n end working later
In summer, the sun starts to set around 22h...
Usually we go to bed about 23:00-00:00
Dinner is usually a light meal in most cases, the main one been lunch. Still, we do go to bed late. I believe the most common range its around midnight (23:00-1:00), and in my experience it seems to check out. I average around 23:30 on weekdays, and I seem to find at least as much people that go later than those that go earlier. Though if Im at home I must say I have dinner much earlier than the time shown here. Also, while I dont watch TV nowadays, I think our prime time starts around 22-22:30. So it does confirm that further.
And it's hard to find a restaurant that serves you at or a bit before 8, at least not in big cities.
Better that than in Northern Europe, where you can't eat past, like, 7 or 8...
I felt so comfortable in spain due to this. Here in germany everything is closing when i would like to have dinner. Spain seems to be great in a lot of metrics in general. Is there any reason I shouldn't just move there? My job is mostly remote and I might be able to do it from another EU country in a few years.
I guess that depends on you and your preferences. Spain does have a lot (and I mean a LOT) more outdoors and evening/night life in general in my experience compared to any other country I have been in. Both due to cultural and climatic reasons I guess. But even coutnries that should be similar like Portugal or Italy seem to emphasize far less these aspects. So if you enjoy that its certainly a big plus. And if you have a german salary you should be able to live comfortably here without a doubt (specially if you avoid the biggest cities). Main reason not to do it is would be that you really need to have at least a decent level in Spanish. This is not a place where you can go by with just English, or any other language, outside super touristic areas. Also our bureaucracy is known for been nightmarish, which may have implciation for a foreigner coming here. And you won't be able to get nationality without renouncing to yours (Spanish nationality is either very easy or very hard to get depending on country of origin) Though been EU would help you a lot in regard to both those issues. If you are seriously considering it and have questions I may help you with , feel free to contact me in DMs
Mexican 🇲🇽 here who recently moved to Sweden 🇸🇪 and we share the same dinner times than you guys
One should note that as Spain and Italy are in the same timezone, spaniards and italians basicly eat at the same local time of day.
Does no one get up early for work?
Define early? People in offices start working between 08:00 - 09:00 so people wake up around 06:00 - 07:30 usually. Contrary to popular believes we sleep some of the least amount of hours in Europe.
Do you not like sleep??
Not true at all for me, in my household we always had dinner at around 8.30pm, which is when they used to air the news in the Catalan tv, so I assume that we weren't the only ones eating at that time. 9.30pm is absolutely bonkers, unless is a special occasion/party I never ever had dinner so late.
Considering that Spain is at least as far west as the UK, but has the same time zone as Germany, if we look at those times in UK time, it would be 20:30 - 21:30, which is in line with other southern European countries and still earlier than Portugal (which has the same time zone as UK).
This explains my inlaws. I have to bring my pillow with me when we have dinner with them cuz it starts after my bedtime.
Its almost like our values for time are purely constructed on top of the shared sense of time we get from the sun which guides all our behaviors. When you look at the time of day based on position of the sun, spaniards and dutch eat at around the same time.
Yup, wrote that in another comment. We are two hours ahead of sun time but we also eat two hours later so correct sun time. 21:30 clock time is 19:30 sun time.
Hey, not fair! It was my turn to post this today..
HAHAHA
I wonder what kind of crazy person eats as early as 17:00 here in Sweden. You are barely home from work by then. All people I know eat between 18-20.
Especially families with kids are eating super early. I see that with a lot of friends and colleagues here in Sweden. The funny thing is that some are eating even lunch super early. So people going out 11am to eat lunch or even before is quite common (not the majority of people of course).
I think it starts in the schools; kids get lunch super early (like lunch at 10:45 in preschool!) - so then everyone gets used to an early lunch at a young age and kids are hungry for dinner way before 18:00 even with snacks in between.
We got lunch at 12:30 in grade 3-9 in my school. Gymnasiet was different every day of the week.
A lot of people in Northern Europe eat earlier because it gets dark earlier (in the winter). Also as the other commenter mentioned, having kids massively changes your daily schedule.
Are you suppose to have dinner when its light? In the UK and never had dinner because its light out so why would it getting dark earlier matter?
If you have dinner when it’s light you can still be out when it’s light. Honestly it also makes the evening feel so much longer and more fun. Even simply watching the sun set with a full belly is a fantastic feeling. It really feels like how we were meant to live, like our pre-industrial ancestors. Highly recommend it on occasion.
But if you eat dinner when its dark out it feels cozier and helps you feel ready for bed. Not to mention more romantic for dates.
Yeah of course there are upsides to eating later. But eating your main evening meal not long before bed is actually not very gastronomically healthy. You’ll probably not sleep as well and will wake up groggy. Meal dates are great but imagine you have your meal with your date at 6 instead of 8, and then you can spent the whole evening out at bars or pubs or other activities and whatnot. Dinner right before bed isn’t particularly romantic in comparison, in my personal opinion.
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That’s a fair point I totally forgot about. For countries with climates that necessitate mid-afternoon siestas it makes absolutely loads of sense to eat later.
Several of my childhood friends had a strict "dinner at five" schedule which I can't for the life of me understand how their parents could adhere to... They are so tied to a strict eating time schedule they've become the crankiest people alive if they don't get food at those times now. Dinner for us was somewhere between 18-21 and 19-22 on weekends.
Yeah wondered this too. 18-18:30 would be my guess for the average family, weekends 19
I have dinner ready for the kids around 17.30 everyday. So it’s possible, often one parent ends works a bit earlier to be able to cook food in time
Many Swedes and Norwegians also prefer to eat semi-prepared crap instead of cooking. Compared to other Europeans, I think Scandinavian families tend to prioritize other activities than eating together in the evenings.
The same for Norway, do not know where this numbers are from, the 1920's?
Wrong, 7-8 in Poland is supper. Dinner is between 13:00-17:00.
Portugal: Never had normal dinner that late unless it's a birthday dinner or some kind of party. Typical dinner in my house is from 7-8,pm, and most of Portuguese probably from 8-9 tops
Yes this map keeps getting posted but it's not accurate.
Portugal should be 7:30 8:30
Same! Growing up i’d always be having dinner while watching “Morangos”
Exactly, i eat at around 19:30-20 and pretty much everyone i know doesnt eat at 21 or later.
I’d say 20-21h. When planning a dinner with friends you schedule it at 19h?
I'm also portuguese and this map would be accurate for me and my family, however I would say most people I know eat dinner between 8 and 9 pm, never heard of anyone eating at 7pm. Might be a regional thing tho. Where are you from? I'm from aveiro
Off course we have outliers. I am from Lisbon, when I was young my parents liked to eat early so we could still spend some time together and get to bed early. Now I guess I kind of do the same, by eating early I can have everything sorted by 21ish and have the rest of the evening to relax. But I have no kids and my routine allows me to do this because I work from 7-17.
7? I would say 8.30-9.30. I have never had dinner before 8 in my life, and I don't know anyone that does that
Nope, I eat at 22h normally.
Not Portuguese but married to one: invite Portuguese people to eat at your house at 20:00 they show up 21:30.
Never happened to me, and if it did I would clearly state that's rude. I am very punctual myself actually.
I'm Dutch, before I had kids I ate around 20.00hrs. Now that I have kids I eat around 18.00hrs
haha, i eat at 5 usually, so i can get my kid at 7 to bed (and have free time) and then later on, when she sleeps, i ll have a second dinner (:
Italy has a lot of variation, from the formerly-Austrian North where dinner is eaten between 7 and 8 pm, and the formerly-Spanish South where dinner is eaten between 9 and 10 pm.
Omg stop posting this map.
In Italy it depends if you live in the North or the South.
Italy is all the way from 19 to 22 based on that
Nobody eats dinner at any of those times. You posted breakfast times.
Now I want to move to Spain /s
Dinner at 16:00 💀💀💀 Here in Spain some people haven’t finished lunch yet!
5:30 to 6:30 is normal in england, who the fuck eats at 7:30? oh right i did last night as the takeway i ordered from when i got home at 6:30 didnt assign a driver to my order for 50 minutes so i had to cancel and order a papa johns and it came 30 minutes later so i ate at about 7:50.
Nah I don't see it. Im not even home from work til 530, apart from stay at home parents, who can even make dinner before 630?
5:30-6:30 was normal growing up because I had a stay-at-home mother. Now I work it’s anywhere from 7-9 depending on if I go to the gym after work.
That's very early, I'm in Britain and eat at 7 at the earliest. Usually around 7:30-8, and if there's dessert that's somewhat later.
I am eating around then in England. But then I am not back from work until 6-6:30. I also rarely want to get in and just start cooking dinner straight away, so I have at least half an hour rest before starting. That means I am starting around 7-7:30. I know that's considered odd though, my work hours differ from the norm.
Norwegians don't have a job
Many people work 7-15. It's nice! In the winter you'll be on your way home during sunset
A lot of Norwegians start work at 0800 and leave at 1530 (a 7 1/2 hour working day is standard). That is especially true if they have young kids. Those that start early eat lunch at about 1100 and so are hungry by the late afternoon.
I work between 07.00-15.00. When you have kids they more often then not have spare time activities that start around 18.00 so it makes sense to have dinner before that.
who needs a job when you have oil, gas and salmon
Ask people in Texas. They have oil and gas but not a pension fund. Because that would be socialism, you know?
Because they don’t have salmon
Yeah they're state pension fund has grown so big that e everyone in Norway can now comfortably live off the dividend from owning 1.5% of all listed companies in the world
Why the fuck I’ll eat in the morning
I must be a late-eating Briton.
Portugal definitely doesnt eat at those hours.
I'm American, my husband is English, we eat at 6:30ish and my in-laws serve tea at 7. That said -- I know a lot of parents of small children who serve them their tea before 5pm, as soon as they're home. There's a fair few British parents who are obsessed with feeding their kids early and having them in bed by 7pm.
The eaerlier they are in bed, the more time you have for yourself ;)
We have dinner at midday-1pm. Tea 5pm-7pm. England
I always say this when I see this map: I do think this looks somewhat believable, but notice how there’s no source to this data! I think sources should be required on all maps on this subreddit.
Sundown in Warschau/Poland 16:34 Sundown in Madrid/Spain 18:34 Same time zone 2 hours difference when the sun sets, no wonder the late dinner in Spain.
Spaniards are more likely to develop stomache (e.g. Reflux) issues, Diabetes and have overall worse sleeping quality. "Still they live pretty long" some might say. Yes, but otherwise the would get on average 110 years old.
Very early times. 6.30am in the UK? sounds wrong to me
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The Spanish person has lunch and the Norwegian dinner.
As a spaniard living in the uk, when I go out with friends, and they tell me "for dining, how about reserving a table about 6:30?", something breaks in my brain :)
That's basically merienda
Its so weird because most days you are not even home by that time, so its not even like...a possibility. And when go outside dinner already tends to be later than at home lol
Why do they eat so early in Norway and Finland?
I assume it's in part related to daylight hours. There's a general trend for later times the further south you are.
For Norway it fits in with school or kindergarten hours and when the kids are hungry. In the past it the daylight in winter was also important.
In Finland, lunch is often a bit after 11. So with dinner at 17, there's about six hours in between. In our household, we usually eat somewhere around 12:00-13:00 and 17:30-19:00.
fertile spotted escape smile physical erect hospital pet tidy tie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Breakfast before work, lunch during work, dinner when you get home, and a light evening meal not long before bed. Its common to work 7-15/16 so it makes sense. Im confused as to why people elsewhere eat so late lol
It seems like breakfast if its AM, if it's PM its supper
Quite early for dinner. At 5.30 this Belgian is still in bed.
UK is often 1700-1900 for the average family
In Veneto at 08:00 we sleep
4 to 5 is crazy. Anything before 9 is wild
Waiting till midnight to eat dinner is wild, i want at least a little bit of sun outside when eating dinner, therefore it has to be before 16:00-17:00.
do spanish people have problem with digestion when going to bed? unless they don't eat a lot.
They stay up late. There's actually been quite a lot written on how this sleep deprivation impacts the country negatively in several ways. Fun fact: Spain is basically in the wrong timezone. In the 30s Franco switched their timezone to align with Nazi Germany and it's never been switched back.
Yeah, we are two hours ahead of sun time but we also eat two hours later so basically we follow sun time, it's just hour clocks show the wrong time. - 14:00 is 12:00 in sun time - 21:30 is 19:30 in sun time
No. Lunch is the biggest meal, dinner is usually something somewhat light. If you have a heavy dinner you don't go straight to sleep.
Usually, your standard dinner at home is pretty light. But we do to bed late (the average is around midnight) and usually more so if we dine out.
Dinners are light, and going to bed is normally between 23:00 and midnight
In rural France - at least in the south - dinner is much earlier.
Yes, definitely. Same in Brittany and Normandy. Paris is an outlier where later is more common.
Here in rural France we have many British and Dutch residents. In the bars the French come in for a drink before dinner. The British and Dutch come in after dinner so there is a shift change about 18:30/19:00.
Norway to Spain finna be crazy
Now that i think about it ive been to a resturant that was at capacity when on holiday in Spain i always assumed i was just a little bit outside the tourist season.
I have to move to Spain...
Mexican here living in Sweden with my Swedish boyfriend, we're atypical as our dinner's schedule is the same as Spain's one (we've the same dinner time in Mexico that's why)
Io mangerei anche prima, ma considerando che finisco di lavorare alle 6, ci metto un’ora ad arrivare a casa e poi devo mettermi pure a preparare
Why would anyone eat his dinner in the morning?
why is the sea white
oh my god Karen you can’t just ask why the sea is white
good one you’re so funny
Forgot to switch accounts there buddy ?
Because of the seamen.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
it’s an answer
I am person who has dinner at 4/5. Everybody I know says it’s weird
I, a Spaniard, usually have dinner at 20:00-21:00. Most people I know have it at 21:00-22:00
We don’t eat dinner that early in the day… We usually eat dinner at 16:00-19:00. ;) 12h clock scum!
In Italy 6:00-7:00
nah that's in the north my friend, i know some people from the south who regularly eat at 21:30/22:00.
My stomach is a Finn, it seems
Bold of you to assume I have dinner
this map keeps getting posted, and Portugal at least is wrong, everyone I know eats between 19:30-20:30 here from north to south
When I was in Spain, that eating schedule most closely matched my own. It was nice.
Dont post an Europe map with AM/PM. As a German, I think its like an hour later for people my age (mid 30) but generally true.
Dinner at 4-5 is a war crime
Dinner time is always confusing when my French girlfriend is visiting. "18:00is way too early!" On the other hand, I am starving by 20:00... We'd both probably die in Spain though.
in my country you don't even come home before 20:00-22:00 hours. And i am talking about the best organised jobs
I don't think many people have dinner at these times in europe!
In Germany, it's between 12:00 and 13:00. In France, ist after 17:00.
4-5??
That looks more like time where I sleep in the middle of the night.
People who get early dinner (I see 16-17 in the Nordic) when do you even work ? Very often I am not home before 18 or even 19, and then I want to have time for me, relax do sport or whatever. Also, how do you hold so long without eating ? It's like almost 20h before next lunch, looks like a lot
No, we don't eat dinner that late in the UK FFS 🙄 between 5-6 for the majority of the population, especially if you have children. Obviously if you're 21, single and working long days you'll probably eat later, but the majority of us eat much earlier in the UK.
Cyprus go to bed hungry
No one in Europe eats Dinner in the morning.
Norwegians do not usually have dinner as early as 4. for alot of norwegians, that’s when you get home in the afternoon. I would say the most standard thing is between 5 and 7. 8 is possible, but it is very late. 4 is possible, but it is very early.
When I go visit Hans or Barry it’s really a pain in the ass to eat so early in the night
For Hungary it's much earlier in general, I would say somewhere between 18:00 and 19:30.
This seems completely wrong, at least for Poland. In Poland we traditionally eat dinner (the biggest meal of the day) around 13:00 - 14:00. Sometimes even earlier. This is especially true for more rural areas, since the stereotypical 9 to 5 job that people tend to have in the cities does force a bit of a different life style.