The Twelve Grapes is the Spanish New Year's Eve tradition of eating 12 grapes, one with each clock chime at midnight.
Each grape represents one month of the coming year. People who manage to eat all 12 in time are traditionally said to receive good luck and prosperity. The custom is especially associated with the midnight chimes broadcast from the clock at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol.
The practice became widely established in Spain in the early twentieth century. A commonly repeated origin story says that grape growers promoted it after a surplus harvest, although the custom also developed from an earlier upper-class practice of eating grapes and drinking champagne at New Year.
The timing makes the ritual more difficult than it sounds: the grapes must be swallowed during a rapid sequence of bells. Spanish communities and families around the world now observe their own versions, sometimes preparing peeled or seedless grapes in advance.