Last year, our family spent New Year’s Eve in a small coastal town called Castille de Ferro. When the clock struck midnight, the bells from the town square rang out, but the town was otherwise quiet, and I ended my first Spanish New Year thinking that Spaniards spent the holiday quietly celebrating with their families. So I was quite surprised this year when we stayed in the city of Sevilla, where fireworks all around the city started at midnight and could be seen from our rooftop in all directions until the wee hours of the morning! One thing that was not surprising though, was that we all rang in the New Year frantically trying to eat 12 grapes before the clock stopped chiming, as this beloved Spanish tradition has been part of our own New Year’s celebration for years.
Whether it’s black-eyed peas in the American South, oliebollen (Dutch donuts) in the Netherlands, or Korean teokguk (rice cake soup) in South Korea, there is no shortage of foods around the world that are strongly associated with New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations. And in Spain, that food tradition is “las doce uvas de la suerte” – the twelve grapes of luck. As the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, Spaniards hurriedly begin popping grapes into their mouths, specifically the Aledo grape, grown in the valley of Vinalopó in Alicante, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast. If they can chew (and swallow!) all 12 grapes before the clock stops chiming, the superstition says that they will have 12 months of good luck in the coming year.
Spaniards have been popping New Year’s Eve grapes for over a century. The most repeated story about the origins of the tradition is that in the early 1900’s the grape growers in Alicante had a huge surplus of grapes after a particularly successful growing season and created the ritual as a way of selling more of their abundant harvest. Another story, however, says that the tradition began in the 1880s as a sort of economic class protest. According to those stories, the wealthy elite in Madrid were copying the French tradition of eating grapes and drinking champagne on New Year’s Eve. Soon enough, those from the middle and lower classes traveling from Madrid to Puerta del Sol for the holiday began eating grapes as the bells chimed to ring in the New Year, most likely as a way of mocking the upper classes.
Whatever the origin, it is now a beloved tradition celebrated by Spaniards all around the country and, thanks to social media, by others around the world looking for a little luck in the coming year. After all, who couldn’t use a little more luck in their lives?
Let us help you get lucky in the coming year by making your move to Spain possible. Email us at info@americansmovingtospain.com.
