In Spain’s New Year tradition, people eat 12 grapes with the midnight clock chimes.
The custom is known as the twelve grapes of luck, or las doce uvas de la suerte. Participants try to eat one grape for each of the 12 strokes at midnight on December 31. Each grape represents one month of the coming year, and successfully eating all 12 is associated with good luck and prosperity.
Madrid’s Puerta del Sol is the country’s best-known public setting for the ritual. The clock there broadcasts its midnight chimes nationally, making the ceremony a major television tradition. The timing can be tricky because preliminary sounds precede the actual 12 chimes; experienced participants wait for the correct sequence.
The popular story says the custom was promoted by grape growers after a particularly large harvest in the early 20th century. Historians also find evidence of an earlier Madrid practice among urban celebrants, so the harvest explanation may describe how an existing custom became widespread rather than its sole origin.