12 Grapes for Luck!
New Year´s Eve, known as Nochevieja in Spanish or Nit Vella in Menorcan, is when family and friends come together to welcome the year ahead. All over the world, people anticipate the twelfth chime of the clock on the 31st of December. However, in Spain, it is not just that last chime that counts. The Spanish commemorate each of the twelve bell chimes leading up to midnight by eating a grape! So what is the story behind this curious tradition?
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Popular belief states that the massification of the "doce uvas de la suerte", translated as the twelve lucky grapes, began on New Year´s Eve 1909. A surplus crop of white grapes in Alicante led to the producers launching a sales campaign relating the grapes to New Year and as a symbol of good luck. From there on the white grape became synonymous with New Year´s eve across Spain and the sale of 12 pack grapes to be eaten on the last day of the year continues today. Marketing at it´s best!
The year 1909 marked the widespread of this custom, however its origin is thought to date back to the 19th century. In 1880 high society Madrid had copied the French custom of private Christmas parties, where one drank champagne accompanied with grapes, whilst the popular King´s Night street party for the lower class had been banned by the council. As an act of mockery and protest against the council restrictions, on New Year´s eve, the working class congregated at the Puerta del Sol square, which was still permitted, and they ate grapes! This traditional mocking of the upper class continued year after year until the mass marketing of the custom at the beginning of the 20th century.
So if you ever find yourself in Menorca or Spain on New Year´s eve and those around you are cramming a grape into their mouths at each chime leading up to midnight, you now know why!
