Why is the lunch break in Spain from 2 to 4? The reason behind the envy of office workers around the world is …

People who have been to Spain are usually curious about Spanish food. Not only do Spaniards have a tradition of taking a nap, but many restaurants, shops and offices will rest in the afternoon. Besides, they eat later than other European countries. Even at around 10 in the evening, people gather in the streets of the capital Madrid for dinner.

The Spanish diet time is of course related to the local hot climate. However, it turns out that this has a lot to do with Spain's time zone: in the past 70 years, Spaniards have lived in the wrong time zone, thus delaying all meals.

As long as you look at the map of Europe, you will find that Spain is located in similar longitude with Portugal, Britain and Morocco. Geographically, Spain should use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) like Britain. But Spain only follows Central European Time (CET), so that Madrid and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, 2,500km east, use the same time.

Why does Spain use such a "wrong" time zone?

That's because Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain, declared his solidarity with Nazi Germany at 1940, so he chose to follow the Central European time zone of Germany and set the Spanish time forward by one hour.

For the Spanish, at that time, shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War, everything was in ruins, and not many people complained about changing the time zone. Many people choose to keep the original pace of life. However, as the clock goes faster, their lunch time is postponed from the usual 65438+ 2 pm to 2 pm, and their dinner time is postponed from the usual 8 pm to 9 pm. By the end of World War II, Nazi Germany was defeated, and Spain never reorganized outdated areas.

It was not until 20 16 that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the government was planning to adjust the national working hours, including studying the possibility of reusing Greenwich Mean Time. The issue of time zone has caused a heated discussion in Spain.

Spain uses the Central European time zone to delay the summer sunset to 10 in the afternoon. Tourists have always believed that sunset is Spain's tourism advantage, so the local government of Balearic Islands, a famous tourist resort, strongly opposes changing to Greenwich Mean Time.

Carcero, chairman of the National Committee for Rationalization of Spanish Time, an organization that has been promoting the reorganization of time zones since 2006, said: "In fact, Spanish time does not correspond to the sun, which affects people's health, especially during sleep. If we adjust the time zone and advance the sunrise time by one hour, we can get up at a more natural time and the meal time will be one hour earlier. "

Chinchilla is an expert in work-life balance, and she teaches in the IESE Business School. He thinks it is more important to solve the problem of jet lag and improve the quality of life of Spaniards than to keep one or two hours of night sunshine for tourists. She said: "Tourism will still exist and tourists won't care. Whether it is one hour early in the morning or one hour late at night, the sunshine time is the same. "

Even in the evening 10, people gather for dinner on the streets of Spain.

In addition, the government's plan to adjust working hours has also caused controversy, because it threatens the tradition of lunch break in Spain. The typical working hours in Spain are 9: 00 am to 2: 00 pm and 7: 00 pm to 8: 00 pm ... But the government is now considering moving the off-duty hours to 6: 00 pm and canceling the two-hour lunch break in disguise.

Although Spaniards who have lunch break habits are dissatisfied with the new proposal, they think it will disrupt their living habits. However, according to the research conducted by Simple Lógica in June of 20 17 and 1 year, at present, less than 18% people in Spain have the habit of taking a regular nap, and nearly 60% people never take a nap. Many businesses and resorts in Spain's big cities have not set lunch breaks to meet the needs of tourism.

Carcero said, "The lunch break should be cancelled because it is unrealistic. As long as you adjust the time zone, cook dinner early and have more time to sleep at night, there is no need to rest at noon. "