It’s winter season in the mid-’90s, and the house is full of kids, no cellphones, no tablets, and only one television in the house with the classic rabbit ears mounted on top of the boxed television set in the living room. Getting your chance to watch something you actually wanted to see was like waiting in line at the deli counter (Take a number) haha funny! but very true. Saturday nights became family game nights at home. Looking back, it was a way to keep the kids away from the television, create a bond, and come together as a family.

The staple for family game nights was ” La Lotería” or as some call it “Mexican Bingo”. You might be surprised to know that the iconic Mexican game traces its origins back to Europe and landed in Mexico by way of Spain in 1769. In the early 20th century traveling fairs or ferias as we call them would set up shop in local pueblos (small towns) on the weekends and many people would go out for their chance to play and win La Lotería.

The game is very similar to American bingo, with some notable differences being that in Bingo, a number and its associated lettering are randomly drawn out from a spinning drum, while in La Lotería, a color image is drawn out individually from a deck of 54 playing cards of images. In today’s modern version of the game, these cards also contain the name of the image at the bottom and an associated number at the top. In both games, each player has a distinct gameboard. No (Tabla) is the same. In Bingo, the gameboard has random numbers registered under their correlated letters, while in La Lotería, the tabla or gameboard has a random design of images that match those located on the set of playing cards.

The house rules were that the eldest would start as the announcer and would call out and draw the cards one by one until there was a winner. The winner would then have his or her turn of announcing the game. To raise the stakes each player had a buy-in of .25¢ to play. With the number of players, the pot was hefty enough to splurge on at the local candy shop. The house fair-play rule wouldn’t allow for family game night to end until everyone had a chance to win once, that meant countless hours of fun. Sometimes winning just to be named the announcer was greater than winning the pot. However, be careful not to mispronounce the name on the deck of cards because someone would be quick to call you out and crack a joke, lol. The game was a mainstay for everyone because it was very visually and intellectually engaging with so much fun. La Lotería was not just a game it became an experience.

Experience a game night full of fun with your own special La Lotería fiesta pack.

LA LOTERÍA PARTY PACK

• THE ULTIMATE GAME NIGHT PARTY PACK