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Spain kicks off the Christmas festivities with the 'El Gordo' Bumper Lottery
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MADRID: Spain kicked off the festive season on Thursday with one of its most iconic events
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The bumper Christmas lottery, a celebration known as "El Gordo" (The Fat One)
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The most sought-after prize for winners of the 20-euro tickets, known as décimos, is 400,000 euros ($425,000)
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The incredibly popular lottery will award a total of 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion), mostly in smaller prizes
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This is a major tradition for buying and sharing 20-euro tickets, especially in the run-up to Christmas
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In 1763 during the reign of King Charles III Spain established its national lottery as a charity
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Later its purpose became to shore up the state treasury
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Since the beginning, the children of San Ildefonso College have been singing winning numbers and matching prizes
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The Christmas Lottery started on 22 December 1812