Spain's New Year's Eve tradition calls for eating 12 grapes, one with each midnight chime.
Known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck,” the custom links each grape with one month of the coming year. People try to finish all 12 as the clock strikes midnight, a timing challenge that is especially associated with public celebrations and televised clock chimes.
The tradition became widely established in Spain in the early twentieth century. A commonly cited origin story connects its popularity to a surplus grape harvest in 1909, when growers promoted the idea as a festive way to sell more fruit. Earlier elite and urban customs may also have helped spread it.
The grapes are often prepared in small portions because the chimes arrive quickly. Similar grape-eating customs have since appeared in Spanish-speaking communities outside Spain, although local versions vary.