So at the exact moment when revelers across Europe are cheering and yelling out the countdown to midnight, Spaniards are silently swallowing grapes. Others claim that's cheating, and manage to skilfully perform the same extraction inside their mouths.) (Some people surgically de-seed the grapes beforehand with knives or toothpicks. That makes them slightly easier to wolf down with each chime of the bells atop a clock tower in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square - the Spanish equivalent of Times Square. If you're lucky, you can find seedless grapes. And they must be eaten right at the stroke of midnight. "On New Year's Eve, we drink cava - but only at the end," Garcia explains.īecause in Spain, it's not what you drink at midnight on New Year's Eve that matters most, but what you eat: a dozen green grapes, representing good luck for each month of the coming year. I sidle up to the bar one evening, and instead of ordering a typical Hemingway martini, I ask for something typical for New Year's Eve here: cava, a sparkling Spanish white wine similar to Champagne. Crates of grapes are ordered for guests to eat at midnight. The Westin Hotel Palace in Madrid throws one of the largest New Year's Eve parties in the city. At the time, it was Europe's largest hotel - and the first in Spain to have bathrooms and telephones in every room, says hotel spokeswoman Paloma Garcia. He's referring to the fried dough crullers Madrileños like to dip into rich syrupy hot chocolate, at all-night cafés.įor the past 17 years, Ortiz has tended the bar at Madrid's swanky Palace Hotel (now part of the Westin hotel chain), which was founded in 1912.
"And then you do hot chocolate and churros, as it starts to get light out." "Until 5 in the morning, more or less! Normally until the sun rises," explains Candelas Ortiz, a traditional Madrid bartender, in a starched white shirt and black bow tie. And only then do they kiss grandma goodnight and go out partying. They watch the countdown to the new year on live TV, surrounded by family. Spaniards often spend Nochevieja - literally, the "old night" - at home. It turns out, I just went out way too early. It threw me for a loop: Weren't Madrileños supposed to be notorious party animals? Where were they all? On my first New Year's Eve in Madrid a few years ago, we went out around 10 p.m., and found the streets deserted. Traditionally, the drinking doesn't begin until after midnight, when people eat 12 grapes for good luck.
People celebrate New Year's in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, on Jan.
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