Setting: It’s New Year’s Eve in Madrid. The two friends, Lucía (the superstitious one) and Sofía (the rational thinker), are in Lucía’s kitchen, prepping grapes and sipping cava as they wait for the clock to strike midnight.
Lucía: (carefully placing 12 grapes into a bowl) Okay, one grape for each chime. Don’t forget to start chewing as soon as the first bell rings, or the luck won’t stick!
Sofía: (chuckling) You act like the grapes are enchanted or something. What happens if I choke on the fifth one? Bad luck and Heimlich?
Lucía: Very funny. But seriously, Sofi, I’ve eaten 12 grapes every year since I was a kid—and look! I’m still alive, healthy, and my Tinder date last month didn’t ghost me. That has to count for something.
Sofía: Or… maybe it’s because you go to the gym, eat vegetables, and send very charming texts. Maybe the grapes are just… grapes?
Lucía: Blasphemy! These aren’t just grapes. They are tradition. My abuela swears that the one year she skipped the grapes, she slipped on ice, broke her ankle, and missed the lottery numbers by one digit.
Sofía: Lucía, correlation isn’t causation. That’s like saying I wore a blue sweater and it rained, so now my sweater controls the weather.
Lucía: Well, don’t knock the blue sweater until we’ve tested it! But come on—12 grapes, 12 months, one per chime—it’s poetic. There has to be some cosmic alignment in that!
Sofía: You know the whole tradition started because Spanish grape farmers had extra grapes in 1909 and needed a marketing gimmick, right? It’s like if Valencia had too many oranges, and we all started juggling them on Christmas for prosperity.
Lucía: So what? Lots of great things start with smart marketing. Look at Valentine’s Day, and people still fall in love! Plus, even if it started that way, it’s about what it means to people now.
Sofía: I get that—it’s sweet and symbolic. But believing it actually brings luck is where you lose me. I mean, have you ever seen a scientific study linking grape-eating to job promotions or fewer car breakdowns?
Lucía: Not yet, but maybe scientists just haven’t looked hard enough! You rational types are so busy measuring molecules, you forget that some things work in mysterious ways.
Sofía: Touché. But I’m all for rituals if they make people happy. Just… maybe don’t credit the grapes when you ace your work presentation. That’s you, not the fruit.
Lucía: Fine. I’ll give 80% credit to me and 20% to the grapes. Deal?
Sofía: Only if I get to eat mine dipped in chocolate. That way, if nothing else, I’ll taste the luck.
Lucía: (laughs) Okay, but you better chew fast—if you get stuck on grape number seven, you might doom July!
Sofía: Then I’ll just invent a new superstition: “Whoever finishes all 12 without choking gets double dessert all year.”
Lucía: That one I can believe in. Salud to science, superstition, and snacks!
Sofía: Cheers to that. May your 2025 be sweet and seedless.
The clock starts chiming. Lucía stuffs the first grape in her mouth with determined speed. Sofía, slower, watches with amusement, a chocolate-covered grape in hand.
Science Vs Superstition 
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