By Rafe Calder
Two dates compete for the credit. One is 1909, the year of a large grape harvest in Alicante. The other is somewhere in the 1880s, in a Madrid square. The sources do not agree, and the disagreement is more interesting than either date.
The custom itself
At midnight on 31 December, Spaniards eat one grape with each stroke of a clock. Twelve strokes, twelve grapes, and each one stands for a month of the coming year. That is the plain description in English Wikipedia’s article on the Twelve Grapes, which also says the habit is thought to bring a year of good luck and prosperity. It adds that in some areas it was once believed to ward off witches and evil in general, and that today it is mostly followed as a way to welcome the new year.
Wikipedia says people do it at home after the Nochevieja dinner, or in squares across the country. The best-known gathering is the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, where the year change is broadcast from the clock of the Royal House of the Post Office. It gives 1962 as the year Televisi贸n Espa帽ola began broadcasting it on television. It also says the custom is kept in the Philippines, in Latin American and Caribbean countries and among Hispanic communities in the United States.
Account one: the surplus
English Wikipedia says the tradition dates back at least to 1895, citing a Madrid newspaper of 1 January 1896 that reports ministers eating grapes at midnight. It says the custom was greatly popularised in 1909, when some Alicante vine growers promoted it to sell the surplus from an excellent harvest.
A Spanish regional media article from 2021 gives the same popular belief: that Spain began taking the grapes in large numbers on New Year’s Eve 1909, after a surplus in Alicante led producers to run a Christmas campaign tying grapes to luck. It adds a detail that Wikipedia leaves out. The white Aledo grape, it says, became associated with the night and was sold in pre-packaged sets of twelve.
Account two: the protest
The same article then pushes back. It says records show the custom was practised before 1909, and suggests the surplus spread the habit rather than creating it. It places the origin in Madrid around 1880, as a satirical act. In its telling, upper-class families copied a French custom of private Christmas parties, and the city council banned the street festivities usually held on the night of Epiphany. People who had lost their celebrations gathered in the Puerta del Sol for the New Year’s Eve chimes and ate grapes, which were cheap, in mockery of the fashionable habit and in protest at the council’s restrictions.
The article says numerous newspapers from 1882 already mention the practice, and that in 1884 some described it as an “everlasting custom”. It says the habit kept its mocking character for years before it became ordinary. It does not name the newspapers, the documents or the researchers behind these claims, so we cannot check them. We present them as one article’s reading of the evidence.
Dates in order
- About 1880: the Madrid protest account of the origin, according to the regional media article.
- 1882: numerous newspapers mention the custom, according to the same article.
- 1884: some describe it as an everlasting custom, according to the same article.
- 1 January 1896: a Madrid newspaper reports ministers eating grapes at midnight, according to Wikipedia.
- 1909: Alicante growers promote the custom to sell a surplus, according to Wikipedia and the regional media article.
- 1962: television broadcasting of the Puerta del Sol begins, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
Wikipedia’s earliest reference is the newspaper of 1 January 1896. The regional media article cites newspapers from 1882 and 1884. Both agree on 1909 as the year of mass popularity, and both agree the custom is older. They disagree on how much older and on why it began. One has ministers at midnight, the other a satirical crowd. We do not choose.
The grape behind the story
The Alicante link is easy to follow into the shops. The Foods and Wines from Spain website, run for promotion of Spanish produce, describes Uva de Mesa Embolsada Vinalop贸, a bagged table grape with a protected designation of origin. The bagging is carried out only in the Mid Vinalop贸 area of Alicante province, and the page says the practice began in Novelda around 1920. Each bunch is enclosed in a paper bag, which stays on until packaging, and the grapes must be protected this way for at least 60 days before harvest.
The page says bagging first protected bunches from the bunch moth, and also shields them from birds and insects, helps the grapes keep their bloom and develop colour, and reduces skin defects. It names white varieties that include Victoria, Dominga, Do帽a Mar铆a, Aledo, Ideal and Rosetti, and one black variety, Red Globe. Aledo is described as having large, loose bunches of waxy-yellow, ellipsoidal grapes with a thick, crisp skin, ripening late, from November to December, and tasting very sweet once ripe. That timing is why the variety suits the end of the year, and it is our reading, because the page itself never mentions New Year’s Eve.
Reading the label
For the designation, the page says the grapes must reach a minimum of 12.5 degrees Brix, a measure of sugar. There are two categories, Extra and Class I, and fruit must be sound, clean and free of pest or disease damage, mould and abnormal moisture. The Regulatory Council is based in Novelda. So “embolsada” on a label names a method with a minimum bagging period, and the designation adds a sugar floor and two grades. It does not say a particular grape variety is the New Year’s grape. Nothing in the pages we read says twelve grapes must be of any one kind. Wikipedia’s article does not specify a variety.
What kind of sources these are
English Wikipedia is an open encyclopaedia and gives the 1895 and 1909 dates. The regional media article is a local news piece without named sources. The Foods and Wines from Spain page is a promotional site for produce, which explains the sharp detail on the grape and the silence on the festival. None is a historian’s study, and none is a primary document.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is the fruit from the Vinalop贸 area, and is that stated on the label? Which of the two categories is it? Is it seeded or seedless? We found no source on that, so we say nothing. Is it sold already counted into twelves? The regional article says Aledo was once sold in pre-packaged sets, which is a historical remark and not a statement about any shop.
What we left out
The champagne detail in the regional article’s account of the French custom, which we kept out of the body. Prices, shop names and dates of any particular market. The wider political background to the 1880s account, because the article gives only a sketch and we could not test it.
Quick answers
Why do Spaniards eat twelve grapes on New Year’s Eve? According to Wikipedia, one grape for each clock stroke at midnight stands for each month of the coming year, and is said to bring good luck.
When did the custom start? Wikipedia says at least 1895, popularised in 1909. A regional media article says around 1880 in Madrid. The sources differ.
What does bagged Vinalop贸 grape mean? According to the Foods and Wines from Spain site, each bunch is paper-bagged for at least 60 days before harvest, in the Mid Vinalop贸 area of Alicante.
Roam first. Shop later.
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