Which Spanish New Year's Eve custom involves eating one grape at each of the 12 midnight chimes?

The Spanish New Year's Eve custom involving one grape at each of 12 midnight chimes is known as the twelve grapes.

Participants try to eat a grape with each chime of the clock at midnight on December 31. The twelve grapes symbolize the twelve months ahead, and successfully completing the sequence is traditionally associated with good luck and prosperity for the coming year.

The custom is especially linked with the clock at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, whose chimes are broadcast nationally. The televised ritual has become a major part of Spain's New Year's Eve, while families and communities also follow it using local clocks or broadcasts.

A widely repeated origin story connects the custom to a grape surplus in the early twentieth century, but historians and reference sources describe its development as more complex. Regardless of its precise beginning, the twelve-grape practice is firmly established in modern Spanish celebrations.