What traditional food is eaten at midnight on New Year's Eve in Spain?

People in Spain traditionally eat twelve grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve.

The custom is known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck.” Participants try to eat one grape with each of the twelve clock chimes at midnight. Each grape represents one month of the coming year, so completing the sequence is associated with prosperity and good fortune.

The tradition became especially widespread in Spain during the early twentieth century. A commonly repeated explanation links its popularity to a large grape surplus in 1909, although earlier references show that the custom was already known in Madrid. The surplus story therefore explains promotion and expansion rather than necessarily the invention of the practice.

Families and friends often watch a televised clock countdown while eating the grapes. The chimes are commonly associated with Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, but the grape ritual is practiced throughout Spain and by Spanish-speaking communities elsewhere.