Hot meals in he afternoon also were common in Western Europe, as is clear from the etymology of the word 'dinner' (via the French 'dejeuner' from the Latin for 'breakfast', which was eaten at noon or thereabouts) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner:
Originally, dinner referred to the first meal of a two-meal day, a heavy meal occurring about noon.
[...]
In Europe the fashionable hour for dinner began to be incrementally postponed during the 18th century, to two and three in the afternoon, until at the time of the First French Empire an English traveler to Paris remarked upon the "abominable habit of dining as late as seven in the evening".
I think it made sense to have a hot meal during lunchtime in places where the sun may set early at night because cooking in the relative dark would be more dangerous than cooking during daylight (swaying around a burning stick inside a wooden house to search for ingredients, spare wood, etc, is not a good idea)
Originally, dinner referred to the first meal of a two-meal day, a heavy meal occurring about noon.
[...]
In Europe the fashionable hour for dinner began to be incrementally postponed during the 18th century, to two and three in the afternoon, until at the time of the First French Empire an English traveler to Paris remarked upon the "abominable habit of dining as late as seven in the evening".
India also has hot meals during lunchtime (nice story at http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2882-the-incredible-delivery-...)
I think it made sense to have a hot meal during lunchtime in places where the sun may set early at night because cooking in the relative dark would be more dangerous than cooking during daylight (swaying around a burning stick inside a wooden house to search for ingredients, spare wood, etc, is not a good idea)