MADRID (AP) — Lucky holders of 20-euro tickets with the number 88008 will be celebrating Friday. They have each won 400,000 euros ($440,000), or some 325,000 euros after tax, in the top prize of Spain’s huge Christmas lottery.
Across the country, other people watched television, radio and the web in the early hours of the morning as young people from the San Ildefonso school in Madrid began to compose a song with the winning numbers from the lottery known as “El Gordo. ” .
This hugely popular lottery will give away a total of €2. 6 billion in prizes this year, most of it in the form of small wins. Celebrations erupt in the streets and bars, with the winners uncorking bottles of sparkling wine, singing and dancing. .
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The event is televised nationally from Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house.
Buying and sharing tickets, known in Spanish as “décimos”, on Christmas Eve is a primordial culture in families, friends, co-workers and in bars and sports and social clubs.
The winning numbers were announced through the young people of the San Ildefonso school in Madrid. The youngsters collected the balls with the ticket numbers and the corresponding prizes on two giant drums. The two figures sang with a rhythmic cadence known to everyone in Spain.
In the previous weeks, queues formed in front of lottery offices, especially those that had sold winning tickets in the past.
Other lotteries offer larger individual prizes, but the Spanish Christmas Lottery, held every year on December 22, is ranked as the richest lottery in the world for the total number of prizes involved.
Spain created its national lottery as a charity in 1763 during the reign of King Charles III. Their goal has then become to fill the state’s coffers. He is also helping several charities.
The December 22 draw began in 1812. From the beginning, the scholars of San Ildefonso sang the prizes.
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