About four hours of drawing ahead are enough to comment on the curiosities of two or so centuries of history. From the eventful draw of 1986, with several errors when naming prizes, to the endings that El Gordo has never won. At least until today. We review curious facts and, below, other striking stories to comment on the 2023 Christmas Lottery:
The 1986 Christmas Lottery Draw was one of the most eventful in history, with multiple errors when calling the amounts of the Gordo and mistakes with the amounts of the second prize, causing some complaints among the public in the drawing room. Here you can see how 'La Vanguardia' picked it up, with the headline: "03772: atypical number for a 'gordo' that was not sung."
The children of the San Ildefonso school made a mistake when singing the quantities of 3,772, 'El Gordo'. The president of the table had to ask the attendees in the room for silence due to the noisy protests of the public present in the room. In that same edition, there was also a mistake with the amount of the second prize, since 125,000 pesetas were awarded instead of the 120 million that corresponded to it.
'La Vanguardia' recorded it like this in its chronicle: "The girl who mistakenly attributed a stone throw to what was actually the second prize in the Christmas raffle felt sorry 'for not having been able to sing the prize', although she calms down when she thinks that 'we can all make mistakes.'"
Several years earlier, in 1954, controversy arose when one of the little ones made a mistake and called 10,000 pesetas for the number 4,073. At the end of the third table, and after the draw was suspended for a few moments to check the previous table, the error was corrected. Luckily for those awarded with that number in Barcelona, they had actually obtained 200,000 pesetas, twenty times more than the announced amount. Live stuff.
In case you are wondering: if by mistake two balls come out of the Bass Drum at the same time, leaving one above the other, the one that is lower will always be called first.
In 2019 there was also controversy. A strange gesture with the right hand went viral on social networks when the person in charge of placing the balls in the drum was finishing the process.
This fact caused the National Court to ask the Prosecutor's Office to issue a report on the complaint filed by an individual regarding the introduction by hand of a ball into the drum of the numbers of the Extraordinary Christmas Draw of that 2019, which finally ended. being archived since no crime was noted. They assured that the man did not commit any illegality because the ball he put in had previously jumped out of the hopper.
This year, on the eve of the draw, 204 balls had to be removed from the drum, all marked with the number 7. The reason: the wear and tear that they have suffered over time. Part of the number begins to fade and there is a risk of confusing it with the number 1.
During the draw, words such as wire, cup, lyre, hopper, trumpet will resonate... Test your mastery with this test:
Before being coined as Lotería por Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, it was nothing more than a simple raffle held for the first time on December 18, 1812. Despite its proximity to the Christmas season, it did not take the name of Christmas Raffle. until 1892. It had always been celebrated at the end of December because of the happiness it brought to the winners at this time, but until then it was not directly related.
The first prize is popularly called "El Gordo" after the character who presented the Christmas lottery advertising more than two centuries ago. He was a doll full of balls and numbers from the drum who was called the "Lottery Fanatic" or the "Lucky Dwarf."
Every year, the Christmas Lottery sayings try to spread and honor Spanish art and culture. It is customary for Loterías to have the collaboration of the National Prado Museum to include some of its works. This year, the selected painting was The Nativity, by the Master of Sopetrán. An oil on panel that was commissioned for a hermitage of the Benedictine convent of Sopetrán, in Guadalajara, around 1470. The identity of the artist is unknown, since none of his works carry a signature or identification, so he was named the Master of Sopetrán due to the location of the works.
