Every time New Year’s Eve approaches, the Internet is filled with news about the custom of drinking the 12 grapes with the chimes of Puerta del Sol. Although in the 21st century, some Spaniards have replaced them with segments of tangerine, olives, cheese, cranberries , chopped dates and even jelly beans, the truth is that the majority still choose the fruit of the vine to welcome the new year. Based on this, we found articles about its benefits for controlling blood sugar levels and its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. But what we read most about is above all about the origin of this tradition… and we always fall into the same mistake.
For some years now there has been an attempt to establish the belief that this initiative came from a group of Alicante winegrowers who wanted to dispose of the surplus of grapes obtained in the 1909 harvest. However, ABC has delved into the newspaper archive to find references to this tradition and has found news since at least New Year’s Eve 1895.
For an article published in ‘The correspondence of Spain’ On January 1, 1896, we know that grapes were already taken in the most powerful circles, while hundreds of thousands of soldiers risked their lives in the Cuban War beyond the seas: «At twelve o’clock at night the ministers greeted the beginning of the new year eating delicious grapes and drinking champagne, pronouncing with this occasion enthusiastic and patriotic toasts to General Martínez Campos, to the army that fights so bravely in Cuba and to the prompt pacification of the island,” could be read in the newspaper.
There is no mention of the number of grapes or whether they were eaten at the stroke of twelve, unlike the reference made the following year in ‘Gideon’. The weekly cites another newspaper, which it does not name, where it is said that “it is a Madrid custom to eat twelve grapes at the stroke of twelve on the clock that separates the outgoing year from the incoming one.” Although later he corrects him: “The custom is not Madrid, nor are the grapes twelve, but three, generally.” Which is right? We cannot find out if we look at what was reported in the press those days.
‘The miracle grapes’
What it does refer to ‘The Impartial’in an extensive article titled ‘The Miraculous Grapes’ that same year of 1897, is the good fortune that comes with complying with the novel ritual. The text, extensive in details, signed by the famous journalist and writer Luis Taboada, reads like this:
«To obtain happiness for an entire year it is necessary to eat twelve grapes on December 31, at the first stroke of twelve at night. The cheapness of the item places the amulet within the reach of all fortunes. Consequently, there are few people who fail to verify the simple and pleasant operation. But it has been observed that, with grapes and all, there are beings to whom the virtue of medicine does not reach and the first thing that happens to them is to fall into bed, victims of colic. Then they are filled with grains and all kinds of calamities. Amulets experts say that this is because not everyone knows how to eat grapes, that it is not enough to put them in your mouth and swallow them calmly. A man from the province of Huesca who was passing through here told me: ‘No, sir. Not everyone knows how to eat grapes. The first thing to do is wash them. Then they are placed in a row on the table and, if it has a rubber mat, the better. Then they take them one by one, and without removing the tail, they eat them all at the same time, tilting their heads to the right side. With this simple operation you will achieve a year of happiness.’ Others say that there is no such thing, that the grapes should be eaten standing up, one after the other, without breathing. And when you swallow the last one you have to do a waltz turn and then go to bed. You see very strange things when it comes to grapes. A very superstitious friend who has written a work about dreams eats grapes sitting in a chair, with his head covered and his legs crossed. On top of the grapes, drink a solution of stew broth and licorice extract. And then he lies face down on the bed so that the liquid goes down slowly. And thanks to this operation, carried out with faith, my friend manages to improve his fortune every twelve months. […]. It is not enough, then, to eat grapes on December 31. You have to know how to eat them and where, with what fingers and under what circumstances. What should be done, according to the most general opinion, is to ensure that the grapes are good and eaten in good company. And then… then you put your soul on your back and you will surely not suffer any kind of unpleasantness during the new year.
An article published in ‘La Opinión de Tenerife’ on January 9, 1903, six years before the famous harvest of the Alicante winegrowers, already spoke of the “twelve grapes per beard.” A confirmation that the custom had spread to the rest of Spain and had reached the Canary Islands, at least as far as the bourgeoisie is concerned. “We prepare to eat them (one for each stroke of twelve), in the company of the lady with whom we have gone out together,” he explained.
First photograph
The oldest surviving image of the crowd celebrating the new year at Puerta del Sol is found in the ABC archive, which illustrates this article. It was taken on New Year’s Eve 1912 and in it you can see the joy, emotion and commotion that each year make up the popular painting in front of the clock of the Madrid Post Office. However, the first mention in this newspaper is from six years earlier. It was published on January 2, 1906 and he claimed to have “observed a lot of worship in the custom of eating twelve grapes at the stroke of twelve on the last day and the dawn of the new year. According to the apologists of the system, eating them at that precise moment predicts the possession of money.
The custom ended up spreading to the most modest families, who began to go to Puerta del Sol to mock the bourgeoisie and its tradition supposedly imported from France and Germany. This was explained in ‘The Spanish and American Enlightenment’in an article published at the beginning of 1907 where a conversation between the journalist and the interviewee is reproduced:
«—Did you take the twelve grapes when the twelve bells that announced the beginning of the year 1907?
-Yes sir. And I continued drinking until sixty. They were so sweet and so fresh! And speaking of superstitions, isn’t it admirable how quickly they spread? There are writers who call traditional a custom imported from abroad very few years ago by some aristocratic families, and which was received with mocking seriousness by the middle class and the people. Fruit sellers take advantage of it to resell grapes by the dozen. Every superstitious custom is productive for speculators. With the juice of the grapes they have said goodbye to the years in Madrid, to rejoice in the natural sadness caused by finding one less bead in the rosary of life, which has only a few tens.
With the surplus of grapes in the 1909 harvest, Alicante farmers gave the definitive push to turn this elitist tradition into a symbol of Spain. A tradition “stolen” from the powerful classes that, currently, leads us to consume between 1.5 and 2 million kilograms of grapes every December 31.
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