Around here, the five mealtimes are morning-meal, 9 o'clock snack, midday-meal, 4 o'clock snack, and evening-meal. On the other hand, I've been in a resort whe

Around here, the five mealtimes are morning-meal, 9 o'clock snack, midday-meal, 4 o'clock snack, and evening-meal. On the other hand, I've been in a resort where they announced "merienda will be served between X and Y o'clock", which scandalised my local friends, who wondered aloud who'd ever heard of such sacrilege as eating merienda according to a clock and not your stomach. My impression of historical practice is that people who had to go work in groups, in fields (or later in factories), tended to hew to traditional mealtimes. (there's a nice discussion somewhere on HN about how you don't want to stay in the fields between noon and one, or the "noonday witch" will get you...) However, those who could afford it simply ate whenever they felt like (in at least two asian countries I know, it's considered a faux pas if there is ever a moment during the day when the main table doesn't have some sort of food on it). The story I heard is that in the western context it was Louis XIV* who instituted mealtimes for rich as well as poor: his court was so large and so elaborate that logistics demanded the kitchen no longer be open, as it had been under previous monarchs, for courtiers to swing by at any hour they felt like grabbing some grub. True, or "Just So"? * later, in the waning days of Austria-Hungary, the protocol at court dinners was that one did not continue eating dessert after the Emperor had finished with his. Of course, he had also been served first, so at some precedence level it must've always been a throw of the dice, whether one would even get served any Kaiserschmarrn before it was time to down forks.