Different cultures have different traditions about what to do on New Year’s Eve to ensure good luck for the following year. In my opinion, Spain has some of the most interesting!
One popular tradition in Spain is called “Las Doce Uvas de la Buena Suerte” or The Twelve Grapes of Good Luck.” At 12 seconds to midnight the countdown begins and each time the bell rings in a new second, millions of Spaniards eat a grape, for a total of twelve grapes each. Chewing and swallowing the grapes to each tolling of a bell is supposed to bring good luck. (Each grape represents one month of the coming year.)
Bars prepare for customers on New Year's Eve in Spain
The tradition started in Spain in 1909, when vine growers in Alicante (a city in the Valencia province on the East Coast of the peninsula) produced an unusually large grape harvest. The grapes could not be sold and the growers were faced with a rotting harvest and huge financial losses. Astute merchants decided to create a ritual annual event to sell the grapes. Nowadays the tradition means that in the last week of the year in Spain between a million and a half and two million kilos of grapes are eaten!
Another Spanish New Year’s Eve tradition is the wearing of red underwear, called “Bragas Rojas”. The source of this practice is believed to be the medieval taboo of wearing red. Red underwear is now worn to bring good luck. (In an interesting twist, Bolivians believe those who wear red underwear on the 31st will find love and passion in the new year. In Ecuador and Peru, they go for yellow underwear, worn backwards.)
In the Village of La Font de la Figuera close to Valencia they even have a Red Underwear Run each year. The locals strip down to their underwear and run through the streets to celebrate the New Year, no matter what the weather.
Revelers take part in the 30-year-old "San Silvestre" New Year's race in underwear at La Font de la Figuera, Valencia, Spain on December 31, 2008.
New Year’s toasts are made with the Spanish version of champagne, called cava. Almost all cava is produced in Catalonia, near Barcelona. In the late 19th century the phylloxera epidemic destroyed most of the vineyards for wine grapes in Europe, most notably in France. Cava was created in 1872 to compensate for the lack of champagne, and has become a cornerstone of Spanish wine production. In 2010, some 36 million bottles of cava were drunk in Spain over Christmas and the New Year holidays.
On New Year’s Day in Spain, party attendees usually gather to have the traditional winter breakfast of chocolate con churros (xurros amb xocolata in Catalan, xurros en xocolate in Valencian), or hot chocolate and fried pastry.
Chocolate Con Churros
It all sounds good to me! Well, except the underwear thing.
San Cugat, Spain, before New Year's, 2009
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Ha! I love this tradition, how much fun is this 🙂 But, I think what I really like is the traditional winter breakfast of chocolate con churros. I am pretty sure I can replicate that tradition here, too!
Have a safe and Happy New Year, Jill!
I love it! I’d even wear the underwear, under my clothes that is. We actually enjoy Cava as much as Champagne. My wine store buddy is a big fan of it, and we always have a bottle or two in our house! Being a person who used to be responsible for excess inventory (as well as other things) in her previous life, I am impressed with the creative person that came up with that grape tradition.
I’ve never heard of most of these. That grape one sounds interesting…
Love this! I would try the grape thing… depending on where we go tonight… I may now bring the grape thing. I do not believe I own any red underwear 🙂
If I owned red underwear, I’d put it on today. Happy New Year to you and Jim!
1. I would choke if I tried to eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds!
2. Much prefer to wear red underwear than to wear yellow underwear backwards. You won’t find me running through the streets in ANY color!
Happy New Year, Jill! Thanks for the fun post.
I’m like Dawn! I would be more worried about eating the 12 grapes in 12 seconds than the underwear. 🙂
Love grapes so I would do that tradition, but the underwear? I wonder what newcomers to the country think about the red and/or yellow underwear traditions? The pictures are hilarious but honestly the guys in red underwear should rethink their participation. Best of all, and the one that really appeals to me is chocolate and churros. Shoot! Now I’m hungry for chocolate.
I think I need to head to Spain for the next new year! I will have to be sure to pack my read underwear though! This was a fantastically interesting post today, Jill! Thanks for sharing it!
Hmmmm. I do own some red underwear; lacy frilly stuff, even. Could possibly even be persuaded to run down the street in nothing but, too, cuz I’m FUN like that. Especially around midnight after having Cava…
Although, I’m already dreading having to stay awake until then. ZZzzzzzzzzz
12 grapes, red underwear, chocolate and churros for breakfast, what fun! One of my grandmas is from Oklahoma and when she was alive she always had to have black-eyed peas on New Years day in order to ensure good luck. Happy New Year!
I love the idea of wearing red underwear for good luck but the chocolate and churros is much yummier! 🙂 For the first time this year, my family and I had black-eyed peas and greens to celebrate the new year. I didn’t really have a lucky year so maybe I’ll eat churros instead! 😉
I like these Spanish traditions for ushering in the new year. I like grapes and champagne so no problem consuming them….I’d probably eat more than 12! Red is my favorite color and I’d happily wear red underwear under my clothes and I draw the line at running in it! Love the hot chocolate and fried pastry for breakfast on New Years Day…maybe I should just move to Spain!
Fun post!
Happy New Year’s Eve, have a great night!
And here I thought the underwear was one of the best parts – well at least the wearing of it, I certainly don’t want to strip down and run through the streets in it! 🙂 I just read somewhere else today about the 12 grape tradition. All I could think of was, “I wonder if they have a lot of choking incidents as a result?” That would be the mom in me picturing my kids trying to down the grapes quickly.
This is such a fun post to read! 🙂 Happy New Year!
This was hilarious! I think I can get behind the grape thing, but I really don’t want to be confronted by tubby men in red underwear! I think I’d want to run to safety….
If you choke on a grape, I guess that month will be bad..if you live.
Happy new year, Jill! What an interesting post – the red underwear thing is fascinating!
Well, you are just a wealth of New Years Info…LOL Loved it! Hope 2012 is a wonderful year for you.
I hadn’t heard of any of those before! They’re all so interesting!!
running in the streets in my undergarments? sounds like a bad dream! 🙂 our only tradition is to try and make it to midnight–what a bunch of party animals. happy 2012! 🙂
Uh-oh. No grapes, no cavo, no red undies. Good thing I’m not in Spain!
Happy New Year, OJ!
I was going to ask if you follow the red underwear tradition! Who knew?
I’ll have to quiz my sister on these traditions since she lived in Spain for a bit. I know when she was there this summer they celebrated a wedding until 8 in the morning. Those Spanairds sure know how to party!
I’ve had the grapes before but not with a tolling of the bell. Hmmm.
Happy new year!
The underwear thing would be fun to watch but not to participate in! I liked reading all of these different customs of ringing in the new year!
Happy New Year, Jill! I loved everything in the post, well, um, except for that distubing red underwear race photo. That one guy looks like he lost his underwear about 10 seconds after the photo was taken!
Hilarious post! Happy new year!
I wish I’d been able to read this last Saturday. It would have been fun to add some interesting traditions to our celebrations, I especially like the 12 grapes. I hope you and your husband had a happy celebration. Happy New Year to you.
Eating grapes sounds like a much better idea than the black-eyed peas that we tried a couple of years ago. They tasted terrible and we had no luck at all. I like the way Spaniards think!