Twelve grapes are traditionally eaten at midnight during Spain’s New Year’s Eve celebration.
The custom is known as the twelve grapes of luck. People try to eat one grape with each stroke of the clock at midnight, with each grape representing a month of the coming year. Finishing the sequence is popularly associated with good fortune.
The practice became especially prominent in Spain in the early twentieth century. A widely repeated explanation connects its growth to a surplus grape harvest in 1909, when growers promoted grapes as a festive New Year product, although earlier references to the custom also exist.
The best-known public countdown takes place at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. Television broadcasts synchronize the clock chimes for viewers across Spain, turning the local ritual into a national tradition.