Crowds eat twelve grapes in Madrid's Puerta del Sol during Spain's New Year's Eve countdown.
The custom is known as the twelve grapes of luck. Participants try to eat one grape with each of the clock's twelve midnight chimes, with every grape representing a month of the coming year. Finishing them in time is often treated as a sign of good fortune.
Puerta del Sol is a central public square in Madrid and the traditional focus of Spain's nationally televised countdown. The clock on the Real Casa de Correos building provides the famous chimes, which are broadcast so people across Spain can synchronize the ritual.
The practice became widely popular in Spain in the early twentieth century. A commonly repeated story links its spread to a surplus grape harvest in 1909, although earlier evidence shows that the custom had already appeared before then. The ritual is also practiced in many Spanish-speaking communities outside Spain.