Madrid is the Spanish city famous for eating 12 grapes at midnight beneath the clock at Puerta del Sol on New Year's Eve.
The ceremony centers on the clock whose chimes mark the arrival of January 1. Celebrants try to eat one grape with each of the 12 midnight strikes. The grapes are traditionally associated with good fortune for the 12 months ahead, making the custom both a public spectacle and a household ritual across Spain.
Puerta del Sol is one of Madrid's best-known squares and is also the symbolic center of Spain's radial road and distance system. Television coverage of its clock makes the ceremony nationally recognizable, even for people celebrating elsewhere.
The 12 grapes are sometimes confused with other New Year's foods, such as lentils in Italy or round fruits in the Philippines. In the Spanish custom, the defining number is 12, and the timing is tied specifically to the midnight chimes from the Puerta del Sol clock.