“The twelve grapes” is a Spanish tradition which consists of eating twelve grapes in the exact moment that the 31st ends and the new year begins, the 1st of January.
The twelve grapes symbolise the twelve months of the year. They ought to be eaten individually at each stroke of the clock. Following this tradition guarantees good luck in the coming new year.
The origin goes back to the end of the XIX century. A period in which Spanish Royal families influenced by their French equivalent, had the tradition of bidding farewell to the year with champagne and grapes.
This elitist nature disappeared when some of the less well-off social classes decided to take it up as their own and turned up at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid to carry out the ritual.
Since then, the twelve grapes have been popularised until it became a Spanish tradition in every home.
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