There is a reminder that Christmas is coming, right in the middle of a summer heat wave. As is traditional, it comes from Spain’s National Lottery organization which announced this week that tickets for the famous draw, featuring the El Gordo jackpot, are now available to buy from vendors.
Once again, the organization pays tribute to the country’s cultural heritage by choosing the Prado’s work, The Virgin and Child in Glory by Carlo Maratti, to illustrate this year’s Christmas lottery ticket. The masterpiece, painted around 1680 by the Italian artist, depicts the Virgin Mary sitting on a throne of clouds resting on a crescent moon and holding the Christ Child in her arms.
Jesús Huerta, president of the Spanish National Lottery, said that “one of the greatest challenges for the future that we have as a public company is to preserve and protect this tradition. It is important, on the one hand, not to lose connection with the values of Spanish society, which have been with us, unchanged, for more than two centuries. On the other hand, we also have to evolve as a company at the service of the public”.
It presented the already traditional summer campaign, which this year, in a jocular and friendly tone, emphasizes the idea that even those who think they know everything do not know where the Christmas jackpot will fall.
For the televised draw on December 22, some 180 million Christmas lottery tickets have been put up for sale. The issue amounts to 180 series (eight more than last year) of 100,000 numbers each, which will represent 3,600 million euros, of which 70 percent (2,520 million euros) will be distributed in prizes. me
Among the first prizes is the famous El Gordo, endowed with four million euros per series; the second prize, endowed with 1.25 million euros per series; and the third prize, endowed with 500,000 euros per series. The smallest win is still 20 euros.
Huerta said that the National Lottery of Spain continues to maintain the social purpose with which it was founded in 1763, of “helping hospitals, hospices and other works.” It helps more than a million vulnerable people each year, through its collaboration with organizations such as the Red Cross, Caritas and the Spanish Association Against Cancer, among others.