Puerta del Sol in Madrid hosts the famous midnight clock chimes associated with eating 12 New Year's grapes.
At midnight on December 31, people in Spain traditionally eat one grape with each of the clock's 12 chimes. The grapes represent the 12 months of the coming year, and finishing them in time is widely associated with good fortune.
Madrid's Puerta del Sol became the best-known public setting because its clock, mounted on the Casa de Correos building, is broadcast nationally. Crowds gather in the square, while millions more watch the clock on television and synchronize their grapes with the chimes.
The custom is often linked to a surplus grape harvest in 1909, although the practice of New Year's grapes was already reported before then. The clock's preliminary quarter-chimes are not the 12 grape chimes; the eating begins with the main sequence.