A long standing tradition in Spain is the celebration of New Year’s with grapes.  We’re not talking about grapes that have been stomped and processed into a delicious libation.  We’re referring to grapes pulled directly off the vine.

In Spain people eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight (one each time the clock chimes) on New Year’s Eve.  
 
This peculiar ritual originated in the twentieth century when freak weather conditions resulted in an unseasonable bumper harvest of grapes.  
 
Not able to decide what to do about so many grapes at Christmas time, the King of Spain and the grape growers came up with the idea of the New Year ritual.
 
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