During Spain’s New Year’s Eve countdown, people traditionally eat grapes, one for each clock chime.
The custom is especially associated with the clock at Puerta del Sol in Madrid. At midnight, twelve chimes mark the arrival of the new year, and participants try to eat twelve grapes in time with them. Each grape is commonly linked with good fortune for one month of the coming year.
The tradition is often called las doce uvas de la suerte, meaning “the twelve grapes of luck.” A popular account connects its spread to a surplus grape harvest in the early twentieth century, although the custom developed through several stages and was already being promoted before that harvest story became widely repeated.
The grapes are not a substitute for the chimes: the ritual depends on matching one grape to each of the twelve midnight strikes. Spanish communities and Spanish-speaking regions around the world have adopted variations of the same countdown.