Twelve 12 Grapes New Years Eve Tradition, Spain. Entertainment in Spain.

Eating 12 Grapes on New Year's Eve in Spain
For a long time, Spanish people have had a traditional custom to celebrate New Year's Eve. On the last day of the year, the 31st of December, they wait until twelve p.m. Everybody has to have twelve grapes ready to eat when the clock starts to chime. It is traditional to listen to the clock from Puerta del Sol in Madrid and in other town squares around the country.

When it is midnight in Spain on New Years Eve, each time the clock chimes, all the people put a grape in their mouth. By the time the clock has finished chiming, everybody has to have finished their grapes and the New Year starts, but nobody finishes eating the grapes on time.

Eating the grapes is very funny because everybody starts the New Year with a full mouthful of grapes. It's almost impossible to finish eating the grapes by the time the clock finishes chiming. Normally people still have all the grapes in their mouths, and they start looking at each other and have to laugh.
If you manage to eat the 12 grapes then you will have 12 months good luck.

You can imagine what would happen if the laughed with all the grapes in their mouths. It's really difficult to have a second to swallow them. I think you can imagine the rest of the story.

This tradition started in Spain because one year when there was a big grape harvest, the king of Spain decided to give grapes to everybody to eat on New Year's Eve.

From Spain to Brazil, gobbling 12 grapes at midnight is a favourite way to celebrate.

Twelve grapes, one for each of the 12 tolls of the bell the last 12 seconds of the old year, ending another set of 12 months — throughout Spain, families await these sets of 12 with excitement and humour.

“María, hurry up. You are going to miss the strikes of the bell!” my mom shouts every year.

It is a tradition in Spain, as well as in some Latin American countries, to eat a grape for each of the last 12 seconds of the ending year.

Parents generally prepare dishes of grapes for family members. You can’t miss this tradition unless you want to be unlucky for the next 365 days.

All of the television stations in Spain show the same New Year’s celebration, which takes place in Puerta del Sol, Madrid. Every year, TV celebrities get ready to say good-bye to the past year, while millions of people wait excitedly with the first grape poised to pop.

A big clock and its bell sound off as the show’s presenters shout the countdown: “Twelve, 11, 10, 9 … .” With the first ring of the bell, millions bite the first grape and continue to do so for the next 11 seconds in sync with each toll of the bell.

Devouring 12 grapes in 12 seconds requires speed and experience, so it’s always a time for laughter and joking between the family members who gather that night. The children almost never achieve it, but the adults compete to see who will be the first one to finish the grapes.

The last second of the year ends with laughs, gasps and hope, and it is followed by shouts, hugs, kisses, good-luck wishes and maybe some tears — brought on by grape seeds caught in the throat.

Then, it’s time to dance, drink champagne and celebrate. The younger family members get ready for festivities that will keep them out until about 6 or 7 a.m.
The Twelve Grapes is a Spanish tradition since 1909. In December that year, some alicantese vine growers came up with it to better sell huge amounts of grapes from an excellent harvest.

It consists of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity.

The twelve grapes are linked to the Puerta del Sol tower clock, where this tradition started and from where the change of year is always broadcast.

Spanish Traditions. traditions in Spain. Spain's custom's and tradition's. New Years eve in Spain. Entertainment in Spain.

In Madrid there will be a big party at
Puerta del Sol - Puerta del Sol Square
Plaza de la Puerta del Sol, s/n 28013 Madrid (Madrid