Spain’s Christmas lottery offers a distraction from pandemic

MADRID (AP) — Spaniards looking for a respite from the pandemic’s gloom and doom are turning their attention Wednesday to a rite that for more than two centuries has marked the beginning of the festive period: the country’s bumper Christmas lottery, known as “El Gordo,” or “The Fat One.” The draw, held annually since 1812, will dish out a total of 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in prizes this year. People can queue for hours in the days running up to the lottery to snatch their 20-euro tickets from the most popular vendors. Despite a spiraling number of coronavirus cases, the public is returning this year to Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house for the drawing of the numbers, after last year’s hiatus.