At Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, people traditionally eat 12 grapes with the 12 midnight chimes.
The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or the twelve grapes of luck. Participants try to eat one grape at each chime from the clock at the Real Casa de Correos, Madrid’s famous central building. Successfully eating all 12 is associated with good fortune for the 12 months ahead.
The tradition became strongly established in Spain in the early twentieth century. A widely repeated explanation links its popularity to a surplus grape harvest promoted by growers, although earlier elite customs of eating grapes at New Year also existed. The Puerta del Sol broadcast made the practice nationally recognizable.
The grapes are often prepared in advance because the chimes come quickly. Television coverage allows people throughout Spain, and Spanish-speaking communities elsewhere, to follow the clock together. The quarter-hour warning sounds before the actual 12 chimes, so listeners must wait for the main sequence.