People in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol traditionally eat grapes with the clock’s 12 midnight chimes on New Year’s Eve.
The custom is known in Spanish as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Participants try to eat one grape at each chime from the clock at Puerta del Sol. Completing the sequence is popularly associated with good fortune for the twelve months ahead.
The tradition is practiced throughout Spain and has also spread to parts of Latin America. Television broadcasts from Madrid make the Puerta del Sol clock a national focal point, so many households follow the chimes from home rather than gathering in the square.
The grapes are sometimes prepared in advance because the chimes arrive quickly. This Spanish custom is different from the Philippines tradition of displaying twelve round fruits, even though both use the number twelve as a New Year symbol.