Say Goodbye to Spain's Glorious Three-Hour Lunch Break

Is the typical Spanish daily schedule about to change forever? For decades, campaigners in the country have complained that the average Spaniard’s habit of keeping extremely late hours and taking delightfully long lunch breaks was making everyday life harder for citizens. This week, change could finally be on the way, as 110 professional bodies in Catalonia have signed up to a plan to change the region’s daily timetable by 2025, shortening the classic three-hour lunch break so that employees can finish work earlier in the evening.

Such a change would radically reshape ordinary people’s lives—and controversially, it could drive a wedge between Catalonia and the rest of Spain, where the national government supports similar changes (and has adopted a shorter break for public offices) but hasn’t yet fixed a timetable for action.