In Spain, people traditionally eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
The custom is known as the twelve grapes of luck, with one grape eaten for each stroke of the midnight clock. The grapes are associated with good fortune for the twelve months ahead. Many people follow the countdown from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, whose clock chimes are broadcast widely throughout Spain.
The ritual is often linked to a surplus grape harvest in the early twentieth century, although accounts differ on exactly how the custom began and spread. It is important to distinguish the twelve grapes from the clock’s twelve chimes: the chimes provide the pace, while the grapes are the food eaten during the countdown.