Half of Britain is said to have watched The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1977. Spain’s Christmas lottery, broadcast live to the nation each year on the morning of 22 December and marking for many the start of the holidays, is a similar moment of national unity. Spaniards everywhere down tools, watching with bated breath as lives throughout the country are transformed.
Lottery tickets are untraceable so previous years have seen furtive-looking men carrying suitcases full of banknotes descend on bars, lottery outlets and banks
This year the television cameras and the giant spherical cage containing thousands of numbered wooden balls will be in place as usual. In a ceremony lasting several hours, uniformed children will sing out numbers and their accompanying prizes in a sort of Gregorian plainchant, lending proceedings a slightly religious air. This aura of solemn ritual was momentarily dispelled a few years ago when the wooden ball slipped through the fingers of the little girl about to sing out its number and raced away across the floor: ‘Fuck! I’ve dropped it,’ she informed a startled nation, ‘and now where’s it gone?’
Tickets for El Gordo (‘The fat one’) are on sale at lottery outlets, retailers and online from July each year. Encouraged
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in