In Spain, people traditionally eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Known as las doce uvas de la suerte, or “the twelve grapes of luck,” the custom calls for eating one grape with each stroke of the midnight clock. Each grape represents one month of the coming year, and finishing all 12 is associated with good fortune and prosperity.
The tradition became especially prominent in Spain during the early twentieth century. A widely repeated story says that grape growers promoted the custom after a large harvest, although the practice also developed from an earlier Madrid custom involving New Year's celebrations and grapes.
Television broadcasts from Madrid's Puerta del Sol make the timing familiar across Spain and in many Spanish-speaking communities. The grapes are eaten after the clock's 12 chimes, not during the preliminary quarter-hour sounds, a detail that often causes confusion for visitors unfamiliar with the broadcast sequence.