OF OLDNIGHT AND GRAPES

December 29, 2007 at 09:12 · Filed under HOLIDAYS, LANGUAGE, TRADITIONS and tagged: HOLIDAYS, LANGUAGE

Nochevieja (oldnight, altogetherlikethat) is how New Year’s Eve is called in Spanish. There is one tradition in Spain that differs from others: las uvas (the grapes).
The tradition is owed not to any deep religious or cultural leftover, but to the economy, money and an excellent grape harvest. It was started in 1909 by grape growers who, in a fever of imagination, managed to get people to believe that eating one grape at each strike of the clock at midnight would bring good luck for the coming year – and they managed to get rid of a lot of grapes.
The idea is as follows: Depending on the number of your guests, you peel and seed twelve for each – small ones are easier to stuff down the gullet but hell to peel and seed. You then place them in front of each guest on a saucer. As the clock strikes, you, and they, take one into your mouth for each strike. Easy, isn’t it? Except that when it seems the clock is striking twelve it is probably striking los cuartos, or quarters, just before the twelve strokes of midnight. Still, it is great fun and a lot of laughs.
And by the way, you can buy little tins of twelve grapes ready peeled and seeded. But hurry or they’ll be gone. Don’t know about these grape growers…

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