Hola Valencia

I’ve never seen anything quite like the drawing of the Spanish Christmas Lottery, popularly known as El Gordo.

The drawing lasts for nearly 3 hours, and consists of two kids, one of which draws a winning number, and the other of which draws its matching prize. “Sounds simple”, you think. “How could such a thing possibly last hours and hours? Surely, he must be mistaken or exaggerating!”

But I’m not! There are hundreds and hundreds of numbers drawn; hundreds and hundreds of prizes. Most of the prizes drawn are small (€1000), with 13 main prizes thrown into the mix. “Well, actually”, you start to reason, “that does sound kind of crazy!”

HA! I laugh at you, because I haven’t even gotten to the crazy part. Each time a number and prize is drawn, the kids have to sing it out loud. So for three hours, it goes like this:
“? Trece Mil Novecientos Ochenta y Seis ?”
“? Miiiiil Euros ?“

It’s not so much the winning numbers, but the “? Miiiiil Euros ?” which end up making you lose your mind. Because the huge, huge majority of winning prizes are “? Miiiiil Euros ?“. They’re constantly singing “? Miiiiil Euros ?” every 10 seconds. “? Miiiiil Euros ?“. “? Miiiiil Euros ?“. Here’s a short capture from our TV… very poor video quality, but it’s all about the singing.

Once in awhile, the monotony of the signing is disrupted because one of the 13 big prizes has been drawn. Excitement Time!! As the kids walk over to the judges table, we start hopping up and down on the couch, wondering how we’re going to spend all the money we’re about to win. Of course, we don’t win, and don’t even come close, and the kids go back over to draw more balls. “? Miiiiil Euros ?“

This year the Gordo went to number 32365. Congratulations to all you big winners in Alicante, Barcelona, Guipuzcoa y Jaén. Jerks.