The New Year’s Eve It is an almost universal holiday. The celebration of the end of the year and the arrival of the new year constitutes, without a doubt, one of the most deeply rooted festivities in the world and specifically in Spain. It is a fun day in which we remember what happened during the year and we conspire so that the year ahead will be better than the one we left behind.
New Year’s Eve is celebrated in much of the planet but more intensely in those territories that follow the Gregorian calendar. This is the case of our country, but also that of most of the countries of Europe and the American continent, countries of the European continent as well as such disparate countries as South Africa, Australia, Russia and Japan.
Very ancient origins
There is historical documentation that dates the first New Year’s Eve celebration around the year 2000 and places it in ancient Mesopotamia. These were dates associated with the beginning of spring and the harvesting of the harvest and marked the beginning of the new agricultural cycle.
In the ancient rome The calendar was marked by the lunar cycle. Because of this, the beginning of the new year was in March. It had to be the arrival to the throne of Emperor Julius Caesar, who established in the year 46 BC the Julian calendarand January 1 thus became the first day of the year in honor of Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and thresholds. Among the customs to celebrate this important date are those of making sacrifices and toasting with wine to ask for the protection of this god.
But as everything evolves, later traditions and customs changed and we arrived at the Middle Ages where they were associated with Christian festivities, with New Year’s Eve being a time of reflection and prayer. In Spain, along with this religious celebration, the more playful pagan ones were joined. Starting in the 18th century, dances and parties began to abound in Spain to bid farewell to the year. Something more similar to today where family gatherings, special dinners and, ultimately, joy dominate.
At this point one might wonder why the celebration is accompanied by the 12 grapes as an element in the search for good luck. Its origins date back to Madrid at the beginning of the 20th century and it is justified by the very good harvest of grapes harvested in 1909. It was for this reason that the farmers of the capital of Spain wanted to share their happiness with the people by inviting them to eat. a grape for each chime of the clock that rang at midnight.
There is another theory about the origin of this 12 grapes tradition. This is for a very different reason than the previous one, as it was an event of protest for years that would end up becoming institutionalized and popular throughout Spain. It is also located but a few years earlier, specifically in 1880. At that time, the Spanish bourgeoisie imitated the French in their custom of holding private parties during Christmas. In these bourgeois revels, champagne was consumed and grapes were eaten. While this was happening, the Madrid city council banned street parties on Twelfth Night. Given this, as a form of protest, the people of Madrid began to gather in the Gate of the Sun on New Year’s Eve to hear the clock chime and they began to eat grapes as a satire against bourgeois custom and protest against municipal prohibitions. Over time, this custom became a tradition, reaching our days and our homes in the current way of eating the twelve grapes.
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