{"id":648456,"date":"2025-12-22T14:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T14:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/648456\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T14:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T14:44:14","slug":"spains-christmas-lottery-spreads-cheer-in-leon-after-one-of-the-worst-forest-fires-in-spanish-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/648456\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain&#8217;s Christmas lottery spreads cheer in Le\u00f3n after one of the worst forest fires in Spanish history &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spain&#8217;s iconic Christmas lottery, El Gordo, distributed a <strong>record \u20ac2.77 billion in prizes<\/strong> on Monday, bringing particular joy to the province of Le\u00f3n, which was devastated by wildfires earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>After one of the worst forest fires in Spanish history<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After the terrible summer we&#8217;ve been through with the wildfires, I&#8217;m very emotional, it&#8217;s overwhelming,&#8221; <strong>one winner told local radio<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A large share of the winning tickets was sold in towns including La Ba\u00f1eza, where residents are set to share hundreds of millions of euros <strong>after one of the worst forest fires in Spanish history<\/strong> scorched the area in August.<\/p>\n<p>The draw, broadcast nationwide from Madrid&#8217;s Teatro Real, followed <strong>centuries-old tradition as schoolchildren sang out the winning numbers<\/strong>. Despite a brief interruption by protesters, the festive ritual went ahead as normal.<\/p>\n<p>For communities hit hard by tragedy, the windfall has been described as a moment of relief and hope, capping a year in which many <strong>Spaniards once again turned to El Gordo<\/strong> not just for riches, but for shared celebration and optimism.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"img-1651823-4767443\" data-fullsize=\"\/media\/74\/_4767443b.jpg\" data-lazy=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamereactor.euhttps:\/\/www.gamereactor.eu\/media\/74\/_4767443_650x.jpg\" width=\"650\" onclick=\"if (!window.__cfRLUnblockHandlers) return false; gallery_openmodal('1651823','4767443',false,'fe6428742011285c5f0a61da6af76c36');\" height=\"434\" alt=\"Spain's Christmas lottery spreads cheer in Le\u00f3n after one of the worst forest fires in Spanish history\" class=\"rwd_col_content lazy\" data-cf-modified-5cac9d5e0d6c42089a7d06f4-=\"\"\/>Spain&#8217;s iconic Christmas lottery, El Gordo \/\/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain&#8217;s iconic Christmas lottery, El Gordo, distributed a record \u20ac2.77 billion in prizes on Monday, bringing particular joy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-648456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115763758131169520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}