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| bell on Madrid's Puerta del Sol |
SPAIN LIVE - Of all the year, in New Year's Eve, suffer the Spaniards odd number of choking. And it was only right that foreigners who venture recklessly into a English New Year's Eve celebration. The reason is that custom, which requires the last twelve chimes of the year at midnight in seconds twelve grapes in the throat to throw.
Like thousands of people in this community "Grape Swallow" suddenly struggling for air, can best be seen in the heart of Madrid. On that central square called the "Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun) on which is incidentally the zero kilometer mark of the English national roads meet in Madrid on New Year's Eve all over the country's biggest party.
Although the police blocked the entrances as soon as push tens of thousands of people like sardines in that place which once adorned with a medieval town gate, the passenger opened the way to the east. But the rest of the more than three million people of Madrid and in fact celebrates the nation swallows and then on television. For the mega-New Year's Eve celebration at the "Puerta del Sol" is transmitted directly to all television and radio channels.
watches over the place, the decorative buildings of the Royal Post Office "in the 18th Century, which now resides, the regional government of Madrid. And the top of the town clock tower that is located along with powerful bell that claim to the Kingdom of the tone and time. Therefore rigid about 40 million Spaniards and now five million immigrants living in the country on New Year's Eve banned this movement.
If the last moments of start of the year, then count the bells of the most famous Spain's the countdown clock until the start of the new year. Every three seconds a chime with the 45 million people on a cluster command in the wide-open mouth to throw quickly and choke down. The stroke of midnight, with the twelfth stroke, the twelfth grape stuck in the neck - but not as stuck.
claimed only thanks to this ordeal, the popular belief, the new year and the desired happiness, good health and great windfall. "Lucky grapes" these edible saviors are fittingly called. Thus, the grape game does not end with a health disaster, the distance between the bells was a precaution by order of the official Customs guards specially extended to three seconds.
The wonderful custom that allegedly thought up the wine in a year with slumping sales, has developed the way a big business: More than 500 million grapes are sold in Spain at the end. As a fresh product. Or for convenience Fiesta friends in small tins. Ready peeled and seeded grapes to torture to make palatable. No wonder that manufacturers have the grapes before popping the champagne New Year's Eve. Ralph Schulze
More about customs in Spain live
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