In Spain, people traditionally eat twelve grapes with the midnight chimes on New Year’s Eve.
The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” One grape is eaten for each of the twelve clock strikes at midnight, with the grapes symbolizing the twelve months ahead. Finishing them in time is treated as a cheerful challenge rather than a formal religious requirement.
Madrid’s Puerta del Sol is the best-known public setting for the ritual. The clock on the Real Casa de Correos is broadcast nationally, allowing households across Spain to follow the chimes together. Many families prepare peeled or seedless grapes to make the rapid sequence easier.
The tradition is often traced to the early twentieth century. A widely repeated explanation says grape growers promoted it after a surplus harvest, although the practice may also have developed from earlier elite customs. Similar midnight-grape traditions have spread to parts of Latin America.