In Spain's New Year's Eve tradition, people eat grapes with the midnight clock chimes.
The custom is known as the twelve grapes of luck, or las doce uvas de la suerte. Revelers try to eat one grape for each of the twelve chimes at midnight. The twelve grapes are commonly understood to represent the twelve months ahead, and successfully eating them is associated with good fortune in the coming year.
The clock at Madrid's Puerta del Sol is the best-known national focus for the ritual. Its chimes are broadcast across Spain, and families often watch the countdown together on television while preparing twelve grapes in advance. The timing is challenging because the chimes arrive quickly.
The tradition is often linked to a large grape harvest in the early twentieth century, when growers promoted grapes as a festive New Year's food. Accounts differ on whether the practice began as a commercial campaign or grew from an existing urban custom, but its association with midnight is now firmly established.