Twelve grapes are the traditional New Year's Eve food eaten at midnight in Spain, one for each clock chime.
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 midnight chimes. Completing the sequence is traditionally associated with good fortune for the twelve months ahead. The practice is especially linked with the clock at Madrid's Puerta del Sol, whose chimes are broadcast nationally.
The grapes are not the same as the twelve strokes themselves: the fruit is eaten in response to the chimes. This distinction matters because the short preliminary sounds before the main chimes are not counted as the twelve grapes. The tradition became widely established in Spain in the early twentieth century and has also influenced New Year's customs in several Spanish-speaking countries.