12 grapes for good luck: Why grapes sales took off on New Year’s Eve

As Zomato’s Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart shared top trends of consumer orders for News Year’s Eve, one new trend stood out: Grapes. On the evening on December 31, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa tweeted out an unusual trend of a sudden craze for grapes. It emerged as one of the highest ordered items on the platform through the day. Blinkit delivered 7x more grapes on December 31, compared to regular days.

Swiggy Instamart too shared that grapes were among the most searched items on its platform on New Year’s eve.

ye rahe aaj ke top 5 trending searches: milk, chips, chocolate, grapes, paneer.

tum log kitna bhi grape grape karlo agle saal tumhara katne hi vala hai

— Swiggy Instamart (@SwiggyInstamart) December 31, 2024

And it is not just quick commerce apps, social media platforms were abuzz with the “twelve grape” trend ahead of the New Year.

What’s with the sudden craze for grapes today?? ????

It’s one of the highest ordered items on the platform since morning! pic.twitter.com/cdSNjHnveu

— Albinder Dhindsa (@albinder) December 31, 2024

What is the “12 grape” trend?

‘Twelve grapes for luck’ or ‘Las doce uvas de la suerte (in Spanish)’ is believed to be a tradition of eating 12 grapes when the clock strikes 12 at midnight on December 31 for good luck. Each grape represents a month of the year. Many even follow this tradition by eating the grapes under the table.

While there are several versions of its origin, the “Las doce uvas de la suerte tradition” is believed to date back to 1985 in Alicante, a province in eastern Spain where the Alicantese vine growers started this tradition to boost grape sales when there was overproduction of grapes in December.

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12 grapes for good luck: Why grapes sales took off on New Year’s Eve

https://www.cnbctv18.com/travel/destinations/four-and-five-star-hotels-at-full-capacity-tourism-is-heart-of-goas-economy-minister-19532853.htm

Spanish author and professor Marcelino Lominchar wrote in a blog post that this was in fact started as a marketing campaign in Alicante in 1909, when there was a huge surplus of Dominga grapes where they gave away 12 lucky grapes, thus kicking off the tradition.

The tradition further gained prominence in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, where one grape is eaten per every chime of the clock there. Below are some reactions my users on social media platform X.

Instagram has convinced my friend to eat 12 grapes at midnight lol

— Shivangi (@ssharma3241) December 31, 2024

12 grapes before 2025 starts pic.twitter.com/TPAAtoppCo

— ???? (@hayaomiyazaky) December 30, 2024

Did you know that eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s is believed to bring good luck for the year ahead? Each grape represents a wish for prosperity, health, and happiness in the 12 months to come. So bring in a lucky new year with Grapes from California! Happy New Year! pic.twitter.com/BQ0dCld0D2

— Grapes from California (@GrapesfromCA) December 27, 2024

Thanks to social media and American sitcom Modern Family, where the tradition has been referenced and caught up globally, reaching India this year, where several people ate 12 grapes at midnight for good luck in each month of 2025. Whether you get good luck or not, we wish each of our readers good luck for 2025.