With cheers, hugs and sparkling wine, lucky winners across Spain on Thursday celebrated clinching a share of the prize money in the centuries-old Christmas lottery that marks the beginning of the country’s festive season.
The top prize, known as “El Gordo” (The Fat One), rewarded many winners across several regions, as the same number was sold multiple times. This year, the total prize pot reached 2.52 billion euros ($2.68 billion), slightly more than last year’s 2.41 billion.
In a nationally televised draw at Madrid’s Teatro Real, young pupils from the San Ildefonso school picked the winning numbers from two revolving orbs and then sang them out to an audience clad in Santa hats and other festive clothing.
As Spain, like other European countries, faces a cost-of-living crisis and stagnating wages, the Christmas lottery draw has taken on added significance.
Commotion erupted in the theatre when Perla, a Peruvian-born unemployed mother of two sitting in the theatre, realised she had a winning El Gordo number in her hand.
She told reporters she would spend the proceeds – 400,000 euros before taxes – on a new house, educating her children and a donation to the Catholic Church.
The woman said she lost her job at a café two years ago and had bought lottery tickets “everywhere I have visited this year.” She revealed she purchased the 20-euro ticket with the number 05490 that led to Thursday’s win in Spain’s northern Asturias region.
The incredibly popular El Gordo dishes out a total of 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in prize money, much of it in hundreds of smaller amounts. Purchasing and sharing tickets, known in Spanish as “décimos” (tenths) in the run-up to Christmas is a tradition among families, friends and co-workers, and in bars and sports and social clubs.
The lottery tradition dates back to 1812, when Spain was under French occupation during the Napoleonic Wars and the draw was designed to raise funds to fight.
The Dec. 22 lottery began in 1812. From the beginning, children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school have called out the winning numbers. .
The children pick up balls showing ticket numbers and their corresponding prizes from two giant rolling drums. They sing out both figures with a rhythmic cadence that is known to everyone in Spain.
Other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes but Spain’s Christmas lottery, held each year on Dec. 22, is ranked as the world’s richest for the total prize money involved.
Spain established its national lottery as a charity in 1763 during the reign of King Carlos III. Its objective later became to shore up state coffers. It also helps several charities.
As in other years, the lottery produced jubilant street and bar scenes of winners laughing, dancing and singing with uncorked bottles of sparkling wine.
For weeks beforehand there are queues, even in the cold and rain, outside lottery offices, especially those which have sold prize-winning tickets in the past. Ticket sales begin months ahead – this year as early as July.
In the months leading up to Dec. 22, it is common for relatives, co-workers, groups of friends and members of clubs to pool their money to buy tickets together, often favouring numbers based on personal superstition.
Spaniards spend an average of 66.6 euros on El Gordo tickets, according to vendors’ association Anapal. The best-selling ticket, dubbed “decimo” (tenth), costs 20 euros and its holders can earn 10% of the prize money awarded. (Reuters/AP)