Madrid’s New Year’s Eve tradition calls for eating 12 grapes at midnight for luck.
The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Revelers try to eat one grape with each of the twelve chimes from the clock at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. Each grape represents one month of the coming year, so successfully eating them all is associated with prosperity and good fortune.
The tradition became widely popular in Spain in the early twentieth century. A commonly repeated origin story says grape growers promoted the practice after a surplus harvest, although the custom also developed from earlier upper-class New Year’s eating traditions. Puerta del Sol’s clock chimes are broadcast across Spain, making the ritual a national event rather than only a Madrid celebration.
The grapes are eaten with the clock’s midnight chimes, not during the short warning sounds that precede them. This timing is a frequent source of confusion for visitors watching televised celebrations.