• Geotoura
• Spain
• Lexicon
• E

El Cid, like Joan of Arc in France or William Tell in Switzerland, is Spain’s national hero. Born Rodrigo Díaz from Vivar (Castile) around 1043, the general known as El Campeador (The Fighter) made a name for himself under two Castilian kings. After the death of Sancho (1072), he was initially banished from Castile by his successor Alfonso VI and fought for a time on the Moorish side against the Christians. His military successes earned him the nickname El Cid (Arabic: Sayyid – The Lord). After reconciling with Alfonso, he conquered Valencia in 1094, this time fighting on the side of the Christians, and held the city until his death in 1099.

The mortal remains of El Cid can be found in the cathedral of Burgos, the capital of Castile. The adventures of El Cid are the subject of the oldest surviving heroic epic in Spain, the Cantar de mio Cid (ca. 13th/14th century). The heroic epic generously overlooks Cid’s service to the Prince of Zaragoza and portrays him as a liberator of Christianity and victor over the Moors. But the theme has also been taken up in other areas. For example, in the tragicomedy ‘Le Cid’ by Pierre Corneille, written in 1636, as well as in Massenet’s opera of the same name from 1885. In 1961, the monumental work ‘El Cid’ by Anthony Mann became a box office hit in cinemas and in 2005, ‘El Cid – the Legend’, an animated film by Jose Pozo, celebrated its cinema premiere in Germany.

The Christmas lottery ‘Sorteo de Navidad’ is a form of state lottery that has been played in Spain since 1812. The name first appeared in 1892. In terms of the total amount played, it is considered the largest lottery in the world. Like the regular draws of the Spanish state lottery, the Christmas lottery is based on tickets with 5-digit numbers. However, due to the great popularity of the lottery, these numbers are sold several times: Several so-called ‘series’ of tickets are issued. A whole ticket (Billete) is quite expensive, so the most common form of sale is the ten-ticket (Décimo). Smaller stakes in decimal tickets are often sold privately or via clubs, sometimes with a small price mark-up that is donated to the club.

The exact number of ticket numbers and series as well as their price and the exact distribution of prizes are determined anew each year. A whole ticket costs a constant 200 euros, with a tenth costing 20 euros. Around 98% of all Spaniards are expected to buy or receive at least one lottery ticket each year. The tickets are available every year from around the beginning of August. There are wooden balls in two large drums. One drum contains several tens of thousands of them – one for each ticket number, while the other also contains balls for the prize categories. Once a ball has been drawn, two pupils from the San Ildefonso school in Madrid sing out the ticket number and the corresponding prize.

This procedure takes around 3 hours. Among other things, over 1,500 individual ticket numbers are drawn for prizes of 1,000 euros each. The highlight of the day is the Gordo draw. As the sales outlets usually sell a large number of ten-digit tickets for the same number, entire villages or company workforces often make a six-figure profit per head. According to television reports, this sometimes leads to a drastic increase in local property prices. In non-Spanish-speaking countries, the term El Gordo is sometimes used to refer to the main prize in the Christmas lottery. Some also believe that El Gordo is the name of the Christmas lottery. In reality, however, El Gordo generally means ‘the main prize’. Other lotteries also have their own Gordo.