Something people from
other countries find interesting about the Spaniards is their daily
schedules. I am sure every single Spaniard who has ever lived abroad
or met other people while traveling have faced the tremendous
curiosity of those who do not understand how we can possibly begin
having lunch at 2 pm (and sometimes even finish at 4) all year round,
and have dinner as late as 10 pm (or later) in summer. Why Spaniards
do not usually go out before 11 pm or seem to have so much trouble to
wake up in the morning as fresh as our peers in other countries. This
is usually attributed to our Latin blood, the warmth and good weather
in the south, the party and other similar nonsense and it serves to
support the extended idea that Spaniards wake up late and they are
lazy. I am sure there are many factors involved and those mentioned
above may have played a little role, making our disorder increasingly
acute over time but it turns out that we can actually go back in time
and track the main responsible for our schedule disorder.
I am pretty sure i am not
revealing anything surprising and unknown for most of you when i say
that Spain's timezone is GMT+1 although according to its geographical
location it should actually be GMT zone, like that of Portugal or UK.
Of course Spain also has daylight savings like any other country in
Europe and so our timezone in summer is GMT+2. The GMT system is a
global time standard where the Greenwich Meridian is established to
have longitude zero degrees. Since the Earth is 360º and the Earth
revolves once every 24 hours, that means that theoretically we should
have a different time zone every 15º (360/24). This also means that
the world turns one degree longitude every 4 minutes (4*15=60min).
However, this does not apply to the real world and it is not really
adjusted to exactly 15º. We have to take into account geographical,
economical and political reasons. Thus, very big countries such as
India or China span more than 15º yet have only one time zone. The
same accounts for Europe in which not all countries belong to the
time zone that would correspond to them according to their
geographical location. A clear example is Spain. The Greenwich
Meridian crosses Spain at two locations: 42º 41' N, 0º 0' E
(Huesca), and 38º 52' N, 0º 0' E (Denia, Alicante). This leaves
pretty much the whole of Spain on the same zone as the UK and
Portugal. Ok, so i probably haven't said anything so far that you
didn't know before.
One might argue that this
brings benefits since we have the same time as in almost the entire
rest of Europe and that anyway, if we have always been adapted to
this, what's the problem? But it turns out that the use of GMT+1 is
relatively recent in history and if you look at it, it seems we
definitely did not adapt to the change very well. We actually had the
same time zone as our neighbour Portugal until 1940, just as it
corresponds to our geographical location. But then world war II came
and the nazis decided to impose their time zone to the countries they
invaded, such as France or Belgium, which also used the time zone of
UK at the time. The Spanish head of the state Francisco Franco,
arguing the desirability of a national schedule which proceeds in
accordance with the other European countries, decreed the advancement of legal time in 60 minutes ( click on the link to see the document). We were not the only ones and the UK
actually did that too. However, the British lasted only until 1945
with this modified time zone while Spain continued with it until our
days.
It turns out that my
great grandparents were having lunch at the appropiate time, that is,
at around 12-1 pm. We no longer do that simply because we prioritize
daylight, proving that we never adapted to the new time zone. Spain
is completely misplaced regarding its daylight. The whole idea of the
time zones is to optimize the use of daylight so that, for instance,
the official 12 pm is as close as possible to the local noon, the
time when the sun is at the highest point above the southern horizon.
This simply cannot happen in Spain. Geographically speaking it is
very far from many of the countries of central Europe. This means
that on the East of Spain, there is a difference of an hour with
respect to what it should be in winter, and two in summer. Now think
of the west part of Spain and this becomes two and three hours
respectively. This means that the sunrise in Spain occurs later than
in any other place (on the west in winter we get the first light at
around 9) and the day already begins quite messed up. A person who
wakes up at 7 am is effectively waking up at 6 am. It means we
actually wake up quite early and sleep less than the actual
recomended time by the WHO. We are having lunch at around 2-3 pm and
dinner at 8-10 pm so we should actually start working at around 10
am, showing that our workday is too extended in the morning and falls
short in the evening, or at least it should. I say it should because
you have to take into account other things. Although the schedules
relatively go in accordance with the official time, in our customs we
prioritize the daylight, so many people still go to work later than
in other European countries and therefore, leave work also later. Add
to this the fact that after the civil war moonlighting became
something unavoidable for many people. They would have a job in the
morning until 2 pm and another in the evening until late in the
night, For this reason, there is this very long lunch break which
runs for 1-2 hours, which is extremely inefficient and useless.
Conclusion: we hardly sleep and our workday becomes endless.
It is growing the idea
that we should really get back to the time that corresponds to us
given our location. Many people claim that GMT+1 is really imparing
our competitiveness, being the main reason of our low productivity.
Besides, people go to work when it is still night and this might be
increasing the risk of traffic and occupational accidents. In summer
what we have is endless days, which, due to our hot weather, become
sometimes extremely horrible. Getting back to GMT+0 and a continues
working time without break for the “desayuno de media mañana” or
a 2 hours break for lunch would imply having much more time alocated
to personal time rather than working time. We humans are made to be
awake during daytime and rest during darkness. Making this changes
would allow us to make a better use of natural light and many people
believe that this would positively affect health as well as the
productivity and efficiency of workers and companies. Besides, other
side effects might be less accidents, less school failure and a
better reconciliation of work and family.
In conclusion, to me
there is no point in having the same time zone as countries in
central and eastern Europe. There is no economic benefit at all and
we are just absolutely messed up, suffering from sleeping abstinence,
having less free time available and besides, giving the wrong idea to
the rest of the countries that we are just lazy bastards who party
and then have troubles to get up and work. Let's just look at
Portugal. They did the experiment in the 90's of adapting to GMT+1
and the result was quite catastrophic. Their 4 years experiment was
translated into worse exam results and failure at school plus an
increase in stress and sleeping disorders such as insomnia. It
brought more road accidents in the dark mornings and the households
increased the energy expenditure. If it proved not to be valid in
Portugal and we see quite similar things happening in Spain over the
past 70 years, what are we waiting for? Besides we would have the
same time in the whole of Spain and wouldn't have this aberrant
situation in which the Peninsula is one hour ahead of the Canary
Islands. I really wonder how many people would be eager to change it
and go back to our right time zone. But whether some people like or
not, it is obvious to me that we could only benefit from it. Just to
conclude, next time you talk to a Spaniard and are about to
say something like “mañana” or how lazy we are, no work only
party, blah blah blah, think about this first :).
Interesting, i dind´t know, but come on, whats next, should we also switch the way we drive to the "british way"???....i dont know, i´ll think about it MAÑANA.
ReplyDeleteNo, we shouldn't. This is not about switching to anyone's way of doing things, it is just about adjusting our timezone to the one that corresponds to us according to our geographic location. I wrote this post as a curiosity, because i thought most people from other countries have no idea about this. You know? this is not the solution to our problems but...as i said to me it is pretty obvious that we are not adapted to this timezone at all so if we see that something is not working, why to keep it. Unfortunately, i do think Spaniards are pretty good at conserving things which do not work and quite reluctant to modify things. If something does not work, you change it.It is not to the British or the Portuguese or Pepito's way, it is just to a more efficient and appropiate way. Let's think about it HOY, instead of MAÑANA, ok?? :)
DeleteThank you for your comment. I hope you enjoyed it.
Youdou! So, when I explain to everybody abroad (with a serious face and my arms crossed), that “we take a two or three hours break in the afternoon because we traditionally worked long hours in the mountains, and the sun was too hot and unbearable”….am I totally talking random bullshit? Holly fuck, probably there are about 1000 people around the world re-telling the bullshit I tell to one after another. Thanks for this post
ReplyDeleteHahaha bro if there is something that can break the speed of light that is the bullshit spreading around :D
ReplyDeleteNow, i am sure many different factors play a role but definitely another one is, as i mentioned, the moonlighting during the postwar...
But **** me sideways uncle, that is a good point too, the burning sun!!!!!!!!!!