During Spain’s midnight New Year tradition, people eat grapes, one piece at each clock strike.
The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Participants try to eat twelve grapes in time with the twelve midnight chimes. Each grape represents one month of the coming year, and successfully completing the sequence is popularly associated with good fortune.
The most famous public countdown takes place at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, whose clock is watched across Spain on television. Families and groups around the country follow the same chimes at home, usually with prepared portions of twelve grapes.
The tradition is often linked to a surplus grape harvest in the early twentieth century, although its exact development was gradual. It is distinct from the fireworks and street parties that accompany Spanish New Year celebrations.