Spanish Holiday Traditions: Christmas Lottery

Since I will be spending another holiday season here in Spain, I have decided to do a series of posts about holiday traditions that are important when celebrating. Some of them are similar to those back home, others are quite different. I hope you enjoy learning a bit about what we do here to celebrate the season!

Christmas Lottery

 Each year here throughout Spain there is a big nation-wide lottery draw on the 22nd of December. Throughout the weeks before Christmas people buy tickets which are called "decimos" because the number is actually repeated on 10 different tickets. If your number wins you actually share the winnings with the other people who have the same series as you. For me it is a bit confusing how the money gets divided but since we never win, it doesn't end up being that important.

On the 22nd there is a big ceremony in which they pick the numbers. It is an entire production shown on the television which includes children (who train for a long time) that actually sing out the winning tickets and their corresponding prize. With big bingo-like tumblers that roll out the numbers, the children then line them up on a stage and then sing them. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a bit odd but it is a tradition. The biggest winner, the one ticket of all that wins the most amount of money is called, "El gordo" (the fat one). Here you can see the winner from last year:

People also eagerly await the Christmas lottery commercial each year as well. It is generally well-received (though this year's has been criticized a lot). Last year's theme was: If you dream, play the lottery.

This year's theme was: Play your dreams. The commercial was pretty much universally hated and lots of parodies have been created although it featured several famous Spanish singers. Spanish people are quite demanding of their Christmas-time commercials (on a side note, they also look forward to the Freixenet ads as well).

Here's to hoping that this year Jose and I at least make back our 20 euro investment in the Christmas lottery!

Comments

  1. EmilyDecember 20, 2013 at 1:17 PM

    Allie, tell me who the famous singers are; is the older lady Monserrat Caballé?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AllieDecember 20, 2013 at 11:09 PM

      Yes, the older opera singer is Montserrat Caballe. The blonde gal is Marta Sanchez. The older gentleman is Raphael and the younger one is David Bustamante. The other woman is Nina Pastori (she is a flamenco singer).

      Delete
  2. AnonymousDecember 20, 2013 at 9:24 PM

    Actually they are called "décimos".
    María

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AllieDecember 20, 2013 at 11:07 PM

      Hola de nuevo Maria. I can only suppose you are the same Maria who commented on a post earlier. Thank goodness I have you here to constantly correct me. You are really helping me improve my blog!

      Delete
  3. AnonymousDecember 21, 2013 at 3:57 PM

    Well, Allie, I'm not constantly correcting you since it was my second intervention. Since you're writing about my country's traditions, I'm sure you do not mind my comments. Me imagino que querrás dar en tu Blog información correcta...
    Gracias.
    María

    ReplyDelete

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