In the Philippines, the 12 New Year's Eve fruits traditionally have a round shape to symbolize prosperity.
Many Filipino families display twelve round fruits for New Year's Eve, with one fruit representing each month of the year. Their circular form is associated with coins and money, so the arrangement is intended to attract financial luck and abundance. Common examples include oranges, apples, grapes, melons, and other locally available fruit.
The exact selection is not fixed, and families may choose different fruits depending on price, season, and regional availability. The important symbolic features are generally the number twelve and the rounded shape, not a single mandatory fruit list.
This custom is one part of a broader Filipino New Year's tradition influenced by Chinese cultural practices, including beliefs about roundness, luck, and prosperity. It is separate from the Spanish custom of eating twelve grapes at midnight, even though both traditions use the number twelve and may be mistakenly treated as identical.