Which Spanish New Year's Eve tradition calls for eating 12 grapes at the 12 midnight clock chimes?

The twelve grapes of luck is the Spanish New Year’s Eve tradition of eating one grape at each of the 12 midnight clock chimes.

The grapes represent the 12 months of the coming year. Finishing them in time is popularly associated with prosperity and good fortune. In Spain, many people follow the chimes broadcast from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, where the clock of the Real Casa de Correos is a major national reference point.

The custom became widely established in the early twentieth century. One commonly repeated account connects its popularity with a surplus grape harvest in 1909, when growers promoted grapes as a New Year product. Earlier elite or urban traditions may also have influenced it, so the harvest story is not the whole historical explanation.

The grapes are eaten after preliminary warning sounds, not during those signals. The tradition has spread to parts of Latin America, where local timing and accompanying customs may differ.