To the amazement of Daniel Siregar from Indonesia, a PhD candidate at Mechanical Engineering, most people at university are having lunch as early as 12.00 o’clock. He wonders why they are having lunch so early.

‘Habit’, would probably be the most obvious answer. From time immemorial the working day in the Netherlands began early. People lived on and off the land and rose at the crack of dawn. At 12 noon the bells were tolled, to indicate to people working the land that it was time for the midday meal. It followed automatically that people also partook of the evening meal early. This explains why even today the elderly and other people favoring a traditional way of life often sit down for supper at 17.00 hours sharp.

The following statement, which was found on the Internet, is illustrative of this approach: “We eat at five o’clock because that’s when my dad comes home from work and he says that in this way he still has the evening before him.” And of course he has got a point there.

In Southern European countries the timetable is largely set by the climate and the temperature, while this is not really an issue in the Netherlands. Still, more modern, more outgoing and widely-traveled Dutchmen are often influenced by countries where they go on holiday and by foreign gastronomic cultures. They say that they hardly have a fixed structure at all anymore and “they eat whenever it is convenient.” (HB)