REALTIME ´ as observed in Southern Spain
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Please realise that the following has words slightly modified to allow the translation by a computer of the original English article in SUR-in-English, 29009 MALAGA, Spain 11 to 17 January, 2008.
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ANNOTATION of newspaper information article - with important connotations for the understanding of TIME in SPAIN.
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Meals and meal times (Ongoing series of explanatory articles in SUR-in-English).
By Liz Parry, Editor.
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Lunchtime in Spain is still in general a time to sit down with the family and to enjoy a calm change of news, though the demon TV is not often included in the ritual, resounding far in a corner and happy noticing unless some kind of general interest (as the news of football?) soon claims the attention of the family. Increasing numbers of Spanish women go out to work, so that they do not go to the market every day, buying fresh products and then creating satisfying lunches for the rest of the family. NOTE: the hours of clock are not explained in the following - but they follow the real time hours of the Sun in fact!
Newcomers to Spain are often taken aback by the unaccustomed meal times - not to mention sizes. At first glance it seems that Spanish workers, after a quick cup of coffee, leave the house in the morning and return for the first meal of the day between 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. Not one of the Spanish housewives I know supplies so much as a slice of toast for the departing workers in the morning, let alone a cooked breakfast. Children sometimes eat biscuits or cereals, but they are just as likely to rush off to school with only a glass of milk to keep them going.
Appearances, however, are misleading. These children, which certainly does not appear to be malnourished (euphemism!), They carry substantial snacks in their portfolios to devour during the first break. After an hour or two in the office or on the production line, workers will take a break for a coffee and a "churros" snack. Hence the reason for the number of men in the streets and bars at mid-morning - they are not, as you may think, all unemployed, but merely pause to enjoy breakfast (at 8:00 am by the sunclock - the site sometimes prevail in West Spain in the summer - but 2 hours before at 8:30 pm in the east of Spain). It is also likely to stop at the bar again later, before heading home for lunch, as above, for a glass of beer or wine and tapas.
Lunch, when it comes – 2:00 to 2:30 pm ( actually 12 noon – Solar - in most of Spain), will probably consist of three courses, starting with a salad or egg dish, or in winter, one of the marvellous soups and stews, concoctions made with lentils, chick peas or beans. Meat or fish will follow, fried as often as not, and there will be fruit for dessert for anyone still in need of sustenance. One Spanish family I know has taken the unprecedented move of serving the fruit first, otherwise their children finish the second course with no room left for anything else, and hence never eat fruit! ( - a nutritional deficiency – increasing body weight? ).
The next meal after lunch is 'merienda' – about British Teatime, a movable feast which consists of coffee or soft drinks, with buns, doughnuts or sandwiches. It's not unusual around six o'clock to see children making inroads into half a loaf of bread liberally filled with cold meats or chocolate, to keep them going until dinner time, which for them, is immediately before bedtime ( although appearing to visitors to do so, children are not up late – 10:30 pm being 8:00 pm solar in Summer ). At nine or ten, or even later in summer, the family will again be eating a meal, which, though less substantial than the midday feast, is not to be sneezed at (the evening meal is, of course, quite early on the daily Sun routine – at 6:30 to 7:30pm truetimes mentioned in Summer!).
Annotated by ScarletPlumBlossomCadiz !
[ 12:49 ] [ Tuesday 25 November 2008 ]