Hoping to meet the love of your life in 2025? Following a Spanish tradition this New Year’s Eve could help make your dreams come true – if legend and a new TikTok trend are to be believed.
The famous tradition has been given a new lease of life on the video-sharing platform, with several women now claiming they have met their significant other by practising the tradition at midnight on December 31.
In the lead up to New Year’s Eve 2024, the hashtag #grapetheory has been doing the rounds.
Izzy Dwyer, who started the trend, told the Metro that she went through the drill at the end of 2023 with three friends.
“One had a boyfriend, and me and my other friend were single—now we’re both in relationships,” she said.
Having met a special someone this year, TikToker Liliana Tuskia also wrote: “It really works.”
The custom involves eating 12 grapes – sometimes under a table – in the hope of finding love in the next 12 months.
But where did the 12 lucky grapes tradition originate?
Why do people eat grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve?
The tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve comes from Spain, where they call them uvas de la suerte (lucky grapes). The custom is also observed in parts of Latin America.
One theory suggests that the tradition came from the Spanish city of Alicante in the early 1900s. Grape farmers reportedly conceived the idea to help shift their surplus grapes.
Another theory suggests that it came from people in Madrid who were inspired by the French tradition of eating grapes on New Year’s Eve, as reported by Atlas Obscura.
The idea is that the grapes are supposed to bring revellers luck for the upcoming year. This is why they eat 12 grapes: one for every month of the upcoming year, as well as one for every bell that chimes at midnight.
However, if someone fails to eat all 12 grapes by the 12th bell, it is said that he or she will have an unlucky year.
Why should you eat grapes under the table on New Year’s Eve?
While eating grapes at midnight is said to bring luck for the next year, doing this under the table has another meaning.
It is thought that it will bring people luck in their love life the following year.
So if you’re single this New Year’s Eve – and hoping not to be this time next year.
