Spain is the country associated with the New Year's Eve “twelve grapes of luck” tradition.
In Spain, people try to eat one grape with each stroke of the clock at midnight on December 31. The twelve grapes represent the twelve months of the coming year, and successfully eating them is popularly linked with good fortune.
The custom is strongly associated with Madrid's Puerta del Sol, where the clock's chimes are broadcast nationwide. Families and friends often prepare small packets or bowls of grapes so that each person can follow the sequence as the midnight bells sound.
The origin story is commonly linked to grape growers' efforts to sell a surplus harvest around the beginning of the 20th century, although the tradition may have developed from earlier elite customs involving grapes and New Year's celebrations. Similar grape-eating customs later appeared in parts of Latin America, but Spain remains the tradition's best-known national home.