An internet meme about European vs American breakfast, claiming Europeans only have cigarette and coffee while Americans eat enough to last the whole day, got me thinking on reasons for such differences. It's not like Europeans are poor or their cuisine is lacking. Europeans eat a lot, especially in the middle of the day, particularly southern Europeans. Small breakfast is but a preference to eat less in the beginning of the day, something particularly southern Europe has in common with each other. Most Americans are descendants of central and northern Europeans, who have much more hardy breakfasts and do not eat much in the middle of the day.
After some thinking I concluded that this differences in eating patterns are due to climate differences. In the south sun is too hot in the middle of the day, making it unsuitable for outdoors work. Thus, southerners use this midday time to rest and have large meals. Spanish even have a word for it, siesta.
However, in order to compensate for the worktime lost during midday, southerners have to work more before and after noon. Thus, in order to not waste too much time in the mourning, they have very light breakfast just to last to noon, when their main meal will be.
In contrast northerners do not have the same problem. In northern cultures noon is perfect time for any outdoor work and in northern cultures this is prime time for any kind of activity, including work.
Northerners however have another problem, cold mornings. Making it desirable to wake up later and spend long time on breakfast, while its still cold outside.
In both cases, weather and climate at their latitude was the reason for differences in eating and resting patterns.
Southerners' cultures wake up early, have small and fast breakfast and then work as much as possible until sun gets too hot. That is followed by noon time break, where people eat their largest meal of the day, socialize and rest until sun is long past its zenith and it's suitable to work again in mid/late afternoon. This is then followed by a medium evening meal and night sleep.
Northerners instead wake up later and spend long time breakfasting, eating enough to last until evening. That is followed by a single stretch of work period with only a small break for lunch. At the end of the day, northerners have their largest and lengthiest meal of the day followed by a much later retirement for sleep.
These differences in work and rest patterns, led towards various stereotypes like Mexicans being lazy, because they all sleep or rest around noon. Reason for that however is not laziness but the fact that both Mexico and Spain that colonised it have very harsh sun around noon and people are staying out of sun way when it's in zenith.
Despite these differences were originally conditioned by climate and solar patterns, they gradually became integral parts of national cultures and habits. Sometimes these habits got transplanted to climates unsuitable for such mode of operation. For example, due to colonialism, northerners bring their busy noon habits to latitudes where that can lead to getting sunburned, skin cancer and other complications. In such situations it might be advisable to at least partly transition towards more southern pattern of doing things to stay out of direct sunlight during noon.
Understanding reasons for different cultural habits can help one not only better understand said cultures but also better adapt to different environments by adapting useful cultural traits that were developed in these environments. That will allow humanity to better thrive in different parts of the world, unfettered by habits born from a vastly different environment.
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