Twelve grapes are eaten during Spain’s traditional midnight New Year ritual.
The custom is called the twelve grapes and involves eating one grape for each of the twelve midnight chimes. The number is not arbitrary: the grapes correspond symbolically to the twelve months of the coming year, with successful eating associated with luck and prosperity.
Television coverage from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol helped make the ritual a shared national experience. People often listen to the preliminary sounds from the clock before the actual quarter-hour chimes begin, because mistiming the first grape is a familiar hazard.
This practice is sometimes confused with general Spanish New Year food traditions, but the defining rule is the fixed count of twelve grapes. Similar grape customs have also influenced celebrations in parts of Latin America, though local details and interpretations vary. The Spanish version remains one of the clearest examples of a countdown directly linked to food.