During Spain’s New Year’s Eve celebration, people traditionally eat 12 grapes, one at each of the 12 clock chimes.
The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Each grape is associated with one month of the coming year, and successfully eating all 12 before the chimes finish is popularly linked with good fortune.
Many people in Spain follow the midnight chimes broadcast from the clock at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. The clock’s countdown has become a major national television tradition, although families and public gatherings also use local clocks.
The custom is often connected with a large grape harvest in 1909, when growers promoted extra grapes as a New Year tradition. The practice developed earlier than that promotion, but the 1909 harvest helped spread it widely.