Spaniards traditionally eat twelve grapes at the twelve strokes of midnight on New Year's Eve.
The custom is known in Spanish as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Each grape represents one month of the coming year, and finishing them in time is popularly associated with prosperity and good fortune.
The ritual is especially linked with the clock at Madrid's Puerta del Sol. Television broadcasts show the clock and its chimes to viewers across Spain, allowing families and groups to eat together. The twelve audible strokes are preceded by warning sounds, so participants must wait for the actual midnight chimes.
A popular story says grape growers promoted the practice after a surplus harvest in the early twentieth century. Historians also find evidence of an earlier Madrid custom among the city's middle classes. Either way, the tradition became a national New Year's symbol and has spread to Spanish-speaking communities elsewhere.