Eating 12 grapes to the beat of the clock on New Year’s Eve has gone from a local tradition to a cultural experience known and transformed by Vietnamese youth through social networks.
Near December 31, a series of videos appeared on social networks showing how to eat 12 grapes to wish for New Year’s Eve, along with clips recording the moments of crawling under the table eating grapes from previous years. Some people even filmed scenes of going to the supermarket to buy a box of exactly 12 grapes, preparing for New Year’s Eve. These videos quickly attracted tens of thousands of interactions.
At many supermarkets and large fruit stores, shelves display wishing grapes in boxes of 12, with prices ranging from 89,000 to 100,000 VND per box.
An imported fruit store in Ho Chi Minh City said it started displaying wish grape products after Christmas and the goods have continuously “sold out” for nearly a week due to increased demand.
Ms. Binh Minh, 24 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City, shared that she bought 4 boxes of grapes for a group of friends for a total cost of 400,000 VND from the afternoon of December 29 to prepare for the New Year’s party.
Boxes of grape wishes on supermarket shelves in Ho Chi Minh City. Image: Ngoc Ngan
“It’s not about putting faith or hoping for a wish to come true, it’s just a fun custom, returning to happy memories with friends on New Year’s Eve,” she said.
The custom of eating 12 grapes (Las doce uvas de la suerte in Spanish) has a history dating back to the late 19th century. There are two theories about the birth of this tradition.
The popular hypothesis is associated with economic factors. In 1909, vineyard owners in the Alicante region, Spain, initiated a grape-eating campaign to deal with surplus agricultural products after a bumper harvest. They promote eating grapes on New Year’s Eve to bring good luck for the coming year.
Another theory is that the custom appeared earlier, from the 1880s to 1890s in Madrid. At that time, the upper class was influenced by French culture, considering eating grapes and drinking champagne on New Year’s Eve as symbols of luxury. Ordinary people have imitated this habit by gathering in Puerta del Sol square, eating grapes to the rhythm of the clock bells as a way of social satire.
Box of 12 seedless grapes. Image: AEON
Although the origin is still debated, today, eating 12 grapes has become a national custom in Spain. People often use seedless grapes to easily eat the 12 bells in about 12 seconds. This custom later spread to many Latin American countries, the Philippines and Spanish-speaking communities around the world.
Traditionally, each grape represents a month of the year. The performer must eat each fruit in turn with each stroke of the clock chiming at midnight. If one finishes eating all 12 grapes before the last bell rings, that person is believed to have a prosperous and happy new year.
The taste of each grape is also said to “predict” the corresponding month. A sweet grape symbolizes a favorable month, while a sour grape signals a month that could be challenging.
This trend spread on social networks after the segment of the character Gloria (who is of Colombian origin) in the comedy series Modern Family (airing from 2009-2020), was reposted at the end of 2022. In the episode “New Year’s Eve” broadcast in 2013, the character Gloria affirmed that her current wealth and happiness is thanks to eating grapes on New Year’s Eve.
The user posted a video eating grapes under the table on New Year’s Eve and was proposed to. Source: likunakasr
The video was simultaneously re-posted by TikTok accounts, causing a fever on social networks. Videos showing scenes of people crawling under the table eating grapes and then having luck in love also attracted millions of interactions.
The custom of eating 12 grapes on New Year’s Eve has many variations. The most popular in many European and Latin American countries is eating 12 grapes and wearing red underwear. Young people maintain it as a symbolic ritual because the color is associated with the concept of positive energy, joy and love during the New Year.
Going under the table to eat grapes is a new variation that does not appear in traditional customs. This action has become popular in recent years through social networks, associated with the desire to pray for love or good luck in relationships. The act of crawling under the table is humorous, easy to create shareable content, and quickly spread and transformed in many countries.
Cultural researchers say that the spread of the custom of eating 12 grapes shows how local customs transcend borders, becoming cultural experiences that tourists and young people around the world easily receive, adapt and share in the atmosphere of welcoming the new year.