At which famous clock in Madrid do people traditionally eat 12 grapes on New Year's Eve?
Answer
Puerta del Sol clock
People in Madrid traditionally eat 12 grapes beneath the Puerta del Sol clock on New Year's Eve.
The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Revelers try to eat one grape with each of the clock's twelve chimes at midnight. Each grape represents a month of the coming year, and completing the sequence is popularly associated with good fortune.
The gathering takes place at Madrid's Puerta del Sol, a central square containing the famous clock on the Real Casa de Correos building. The chimes are broadcast nationally, so many people across Spain follow the ritual from home with a bowl of grapes.
The tradition is often linked to a surplus grape harvest in the early twentieth century, when growers promoted extra grape consumption. The exact origin is debated, and earlier urban references exist, so the surplus story should be treated as a popular explanation rather than an uncontested single beginning.