Puerta del Sol in Madrid hosts Spain's televised midnight grape-eating tradition at New Year's Eve.
At midnight, people try to eat one grape with each of the clock's twelve chimes. The twelve grapes represent the twelve months ahead, and finishing them is popularly associated with good fortune for the coming year. Spain's national broadcasters traditionally transmit the clock chimes from Puerta del Sol.
The square is one of Madrid's best-known public spaces and contains the clock whose chimes coordinate the ritual. Large crowds gather there, while people across Spain follow the ceremony at home or in local squares.
The custom is often linked to a surplus grape harvest in the early twentieth century, although historians discuss how the practice developed from earlier Madrid customs. The “quarter chimes” before the main strokes are not the signal to begin; participants wait for the twelve principal midnight chimes.