Eating twelve green grapes under the table as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve isn’t just a viral trend on TikTok. It’s very common in Latin households, just as much as café con leche in the morning, ovens filled with pans, and a lace tablecloth on every available surface around.
Known as las uvas de la suerte — or the “grapes of luck” — this tradition signifies twelve wishes you want to fulfill in the upcoming months or, simply, the arrival of a lucky year.
With roots in Spanish culture, the ritual’s exact origin remains a mystery, but there are two main theories surrounding its beginning. One is that the Madrid bourgeoisie supposedly and ironically copied the French custom of drinking champagne and eating grapes on New Year’s Eve. There’s also the tale of Alicante farmers who came up with this tradition as a way to sell their fruit surplus in a 1909 harvest.
Out of all the lucky grapes out there, 80% reportedly come from Alicante, located in Spain’s Mediterranean coast. This specific variety of uvas are green, pale, and traditional, collected only in November and December since they mature late. They also have fine skin, which makes the whole ordeal of chewing and swallowing twelve grapes easier.
As the ritual has been amplified beyond Latin countries and found new, global-spanning ground on TikTok as a viral trend, the origin of the grapes doesn’t matter as much.
Accumulating millions of views under hashtags like #12grapechallenge, #12grapetradition, #12grapes12wishes, and more, the practice of fully consuming a dozen grapes before midnight on New Year’s Eve was transformed into a challenge, initially, in 2022.
The ritual is also paired with wearing red underwear, which is NYE ritual that’s attributed to abundance and also traces back to Latin countries.
Armored by this powerful combo, users tried both practices as the New Year approached.
With tips shared by Latin creators, like choosing smaller grapes and putting them on a stick per the suggestion of @smallbizcassie, and a lot of memes spread around, the practice turned into a challenge so that people could update followers, a year later, if it worked.
And the challenge wasn’t forgotten because in 2023, the trend came back with full force at the end of the year, as multiple creators came forward to remember their good year and attribute it to the lucky fruit. This, of course, only reignited everyone’s interest in taking part in the practice in 2023 so that 2024 can be better.
So if you were wondering what’s the deal with the grapes and NYE trend, no one explains it better than Gloria Delgado-Pritchett from Modern Family: “At midnight, you eat twelve grapes and make twelve wishes, one for each month of the year. Five years ago I was a single mother living in a slum and, today, I’m driving to Palm Springs with my rich husband. You do what you want. I’m eating the grapes.”