Madrid’s Puerta del Sol clock leads Spain’s nationally televised New Year’s Eve grape countdown.
The clock at Puerta del Sol is the focus of Spain’s best-known midnight ritual. As its twelve principal chimes sound, people eat twelve grapes, one for each chime and each month of the coming year. Television broadcasts carry the sequence from Madrid to households throughout Spain and to Spanish-speaking audiences abroad.
Puerta del Sol is a historic public square in the center of Madrid. Its clock was made by the Spanish watchmaker José Rodríguez Losada and was installed in the nineteenth century. The square is also known for the Kilometer Zero marker, traditionally used as a reference point for Spain’s radial road network.
Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia all hold important New Year celebrations, but they do not supply the nationally iconic clock sequence associated with the grape ritual. The phrase “the twelve chimes” refers to the principal midnight strokes, not every sound produced by the clock beforehand.