Grapes fly off shelves on New Year’s Eve thanks to Spanish ‘luck ritual’ craze

For those longing for love or fortune or both, you should give the “12 grapes of luck” a shot. But there’s a twist. You will have to wait for one more year, because you are supposed to consume 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s eve.

Thanks to this new tradition in India popularised by social media influencers and possibly the hit show Modern Family, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa was in for a pleasant surprise when he noticed that grapes had become one of the most-ordered food items on the trendy 10-minute delivery app on the last day of the year.

To find out why it was so, he did what most people do nowadays – he went to social media.

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“What’s with the sudden craze for grapes today?? (emoji of a person thinking). It's one of the highest ordered items on the platform since morning! We’ve already delivered 7x more grapes than we do on a regular day,” he posted on X.

And sure enough, he got an answer.

“Albinder, it’s an age-old Spanish tradition – to eat 12 grapes and wish for prosperity in 2025 :) Honestly now, a marketing technique by grape farmers in Europe, who 10x the supply and 3x the price each Dec. Think Gloria from Modern Family popularised this in India,” replied @asharoraa.

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Several other users also explained that the Spanish tradition was to be “blamed” for the grape mania. They said that in Spain, “las doce uvas de la suerte” (the 12 grapes of luck) are eaten at midnight on the last day of the year to bring good fortune for every month of the coming year.

How it all began

The tradition apparently was started in the late 19th century when wine producers in Alicante in Spain were saddled with a surplus of grapes and came up with the novel idea of telling people to eat grapes as a means to welcome prosperity in the New Year.

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In recent years, the “grape craze” has gone viral on social media as several influencers insisted that the trick worked for them and brought them luck in love and fortune.

Another twist

There’s a further twist to the story. Many people, especially women, ate 12 green grapes while under a table at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, and posted videos on social media claiming that it worked for them the previous year and urged others to do the same to find their dream partner in 2025.

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So now you know an easy way to win love and fortune. As the saying goes - nothing ventured, nothing gained.