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You’ve done Champagne toasts and countdown kisses, but have you tried eating grapes on New Year’s Eve for good luck? In recent years, the tradition—which involves some iteration of eating exactly 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight, often while crouched under a table—has become something of a viral sensation. Many TikTok creators even claim that the practice has blessed them with everything from greater fortune to true love.
If the ritual has you scratching your head in wonder, you’re not alone. “Is it so you’ll get engaged?” one Vogue editor asked when the topic recently came up at the office. “Be careful doing that,” another advised. “I heard you can choke.”
In order to get to the bottom of the phenomenon, I consulted some experts. Read on to find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the custom of eating grapes on New Year’s.
Why do people eat grapes on New Year’s?
“Eating 12 grapes at midnight supposedly brings good luck for the coming new year—one month of good luck per grape,” says Dr. Daniel Compora, a professor at the University of Toledo who specializes in folklore and popular culture. “They need to be eaten at each stroke of midnight.”
While it’s most common to simply eat the grapes as the clock chimes, there are—as you’ve probably clocked on social media—several ways to participate in the tradition. “Some variations indicate that people need to do this while wearing red undergarments or sitting under a table,” Compora explains. “Another variant suggests that doing so will ensure a person finds love during the coming year.”
Regardless of how it’s done, two rules seem pretty consistent: Each grape represents a wish for the 12 months ahead, and you must finish eating all 12 of the grapes before the clock strikes 12:01, or the wishes won’t come true. “You cannot still be chewing,” Noel Wolf, a cultural expert and language teacher at Babbel, emphasizes.
Where did the tradition come from?
Eating grapes on New Year’s isn’t just something that someone on the internet made up; its roots actually go back at least a hundred years. “This is really a Spanish tradition,” explains Michael A. Di Giovine, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology who focuses on food heritage and holiday traditions in Mediterranean culture at West Chester University. “Many say it originated only in the late 1890s/early 1900s to use up a surplus of grapes. There’s also some evidence in late-19th-century newspapers that high-class people would eat these grapes on New Year’s for lunch. But most Spaniards would say it was in 1909, when merchants from Alicante and Murcia handed out grapes at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid to encourage and create this tradition.”
To that end, while the tradition is also popular in Latin America, it’s a very big deal in Spain. Wolf, who lives in Seville, says that just like how Americans follow the goings-on in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, in Spain, everyone tunes in to the Campanadas en la Puerta de Sol, broadcast live from Madrid, to know when to eat the grapes: “It’s a joyful way to welcome the New Year with optimism and intention.”
Is eating grapes on New Year’s a choking hazard?
According to Giovine, the aforementioned choking hazard is very real—so much so that certain precautions have emerged around the tradition. “Since the late 1960s, television stations would show the bell tower at the Plaza del Sol so that people who were not in Madrid could participate,” he says. “Funny enough, because there are always some injuries, I heard that some bell ringers slow down the chiming to allow for people to consume the grapes more slowly.”
Individuals have also discovered ways to mitigate the issue. “Seedless grapes sell out very quickly in Spain on New Year’s Eve,” Wolf notes.
Do you really have to be under a table?
If you want to sit under a table, it won’t hurt. But “it’s not part of the original tradition,” Wolf says.
“I had never heard of the table component until a couple of years ago, when TikTok users started doing it,” Compora agrees, adding that the table element likely originated in Peru and may be tied to a Latin American superstition related to being protected while seeking love.
“Some think that hiding under a table is meant to attract your soul mate,” explains Wolf. “In some cultures, being under a table or performing other symbolic gestures, like wearing specific colors—allegedly red undergarments bring good luck—or holding money, have been added to the ritual for extra luck in areas like love and wealth.”
These variations also offer an interesting example of the way traditions can evolve over time. “We have to remember that all traditions—all rituals—are invented,” notes Giovine. “What makes it enduring is that it has relevance in the present and can link present participants with their (often imagined) past. People celebrate this because their parents did, and they transmit it to the future so their children do as well. For diasporic Spaniards, or for some Latin Americans, the practice of eating grapes symbolically replicates participants’ Spanish origins—much like the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve helps Italian Americans reinforce their Italian heritage.”
What color grapes are best on New Year’s?
When it comes to what color grape you choose, that, it turns out, is entirely up to you. “Traditionally, the grapes can be any color, but green grapes are most common, likely because they’re readily available and often sweeter,” Wolf says. Compora agrees: “My research indicates that red or black grapes will suffice.”
In the end, the ritual is more about the abundance that the grapes represent than their coloring. “In the Mediterranean, grapes are considered a staple fruit—but like other fruits, they are quite precarious,” explains Giovine. “A lack of rain, pestilence, cool summers, or other factors will ruin a harvest, which could create a lack of wine, a staple at the table. Along with this, grapes’ numerous clusters are easily understood to be a symbol of prosperity. Many other New Year’s traditions include this symbolism of luck and prosperity, especially in the Mediterranean. For example, on New Year’s Day, Italians will eat lentils—like the round grapes, they resemble coins or money and are served in abundance.”
In other words, the color of the grapes won’t influence the outcome of your wishes—it’s more about the intention. As Compora puts it: “Like most superstitions, the belief in the act matters the most.”
