I come from a country where the main tradition for new year is to be with your friends counting down to midnight with Big Ben and then all singing ‘Auld lang Syne’.
In Spain, the tradition is quite different.
New Year’s is generally a family affair, when people have a large meal together and wait for midnight to arrive. Some people then go out with friends until the early hours.
All the television channels show the clock in Madrid’s ‘Puerta de Sol’ as it approaches the all important hour.
The tradition hear in Spain is to eat 12 grapes, 12 seconds before the clock strikes midnight. So that’s one grape every second!!!!!! It’s actually really difficult to do!
You do get a warning chime from the clock so that you can get in to the best grape eating position – and I do advise having a glass of something on hand to help wash them down!! As ‘hopefully’ the 12th grape goes down, the clock chimes midnight and New Year has arrived!!
It’s not so easy to wish someone a Happy New Year when your mouth is full of grapes!! Then there’s fireworks, singing, dancing and celebrating well in to the morning.
It’s great to experience a tradition from another country so I hope you get the opportunity to see in the New Year in Spain sometime soon.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL from the Estudio Hispanico team!!!
