12 Grapes New Year Superstition

Grapes are indicative of celebration, fertility, abundance of harvest and the bountiful goodness of God.

What does the 12 grapes mean?

There is a tradition on New Years Eve to eat 12 grapes, each one denotes good luck. This is quite an interesting superstition. This is a Spanish tradition whereby it is custom to eat 12 grapes one edge each strike the hour on New Year’s Eve. The eating of these 12 grapes is to make sure that there will be some happy seedless times ahead. Normally, these grapes are accompanied by wine. This tradition is traced to the 1900s when the grapes were plentiful in Alicante. After they have carried out this customs known as the “las doc vas de la suerte” Normally, in spain crowds get together in a square along with their grapes. They wait for the clock to strike and say “Feliz And Nuevo” as they kiss each other.

What is the biblical meaning of grapes?

As associated with wine, grapes can represent the communion wine (Christ’s blood). In combination with the Greek God Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans), grapes typically symbolize the absence of restraint, intoxication, ritual madness, ecstasy and youthful revelry. Cultivation of the domestic grape started more than six millenniums ago and that was in the Near East. There has been an archaeological evidence for the dominance of winemaking by humans who were living in Georgia more that eight millenniums ago.

The grapes have a high degree of religious significance in many religious following all over the world; they are used to make wine that is used for to mark various religious ceremonies. For instance, in the bible, we find the first mention of the grapes in the first book Genesis 9:20-21. Here they are grown by Noah and he uses them and he uses them to make wine.

As for the instruction on making wine, they are given in the books of Proverbs and Isaiah. Such verses that give the instructions are Proverbs 20:1 and Isaiah 5:20-25, Deuteronomy 18:3-5, 14:22-27, 16:13-15 give evidence that the wines were common drinks among the Jews especially when they had feasts. The grapes are also significant to both the Romans and Greeks who have closely linked it to their god of agriculture known as Dionysus, the god is always portrayed with grape leaves on his forehead. The most significant use of the grapes has been in the Eucharist which has been a common practice since the early church.

There are varying religious views on the importance of wine in the various religious festivals among various festivals. In the Christian after, the grapes the grapes often represent the blood of Christ; there has been a high significance of the grape leaves in Caravaggio’s John the Baptist. There has been widespread use of the grape juice in various religious practices and this is probably due to the fact that the juice does not have any alcoholic content and many Christians are opposed to the use of alcohol and alcoholic drinks. The use of grape wine in the common religious practice which is better known as the Lord’s Supper is very common.

As for the Catholics the use of the grape wine in the Eucharist is said to have started with the last supper that Jesus had with the disciples and that he told them to commemorate the festival on regular basis. The Catholics believe that the bread is symbolic of the body of Christ and that the wine which has been is symbolic of the blood of Jesus; this is a dogma that is better known as transubstantiation. They use wine rather than grape juice due to the deep spiritual roots, this is also said to be in line with the rules that were set up when the church was starting.