TL;DR: Every week, Cruzadinha BLA publishes a 15×15 grid called Domingão (Big Sunday). It is the direct heritage of the big Sunday newspaper crossword, translated to the iPhone screen. Dense, contemplative, free for everyone. 52 Big Sundays in the opening archive, one for each week of the year.
There is a memory many people carry from childhood and adolescence. Sunday morning, newspaper opened, somebody in the family with a pen. The big crossword page. No one in a hurry. The coffee getting cold. The word that was not coming taking an hour to arrive, and when it arrived, it came in whole.
The Big Sunday wants to carry that memory. Not as nostalgia. As rhythm.
The big newspaper crossword was weekly for a reason. Daily did not fit. You do not play a 15×15 between coffee and the bus. It asks for the free morning, or at least a slice of the afternoon. It asks for the armchair. The porch sofa. The office desk when no one is looking.
The app cadence respects that. Every week, one Big Sunday. Not pushed nor pulled. When you open the app on Sunday morning, it is there. When you remember it on Wednesday, it is still there, waiting.
All week long, it is the same one. Only the next week, another Big Sunday. No one warns you, no one nags you. You open it when you want, and when you want, it is there.
The 15×15 format is the classic size of big crosswords in Brazilian Portuguese. Coquetel published in 15×15 for decades. Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo still publish 15×15 in their Sunday grids. It is the format that fits the open newspaper and that offers density without becoming an encyclopedia.
A 15×15 holds around 70 words, depending on the layout. There is room for theme, for wordplay, for an uncommon word. In an 11×11 or 9×9 grid only the direct definition fits. The 15×15 gives the good clue room to breathe.
The Big Sunday is also where the voice of the clues shows most. In a 5×5 Mini, the clue has to be tight and short. In the Big Sunday, it can tell you a little something before handing you the answer.
Pull quote: The big crossword is not a puzzle. It is slow reading. You do not finish to win. You finish because you reached the end.
The Big Sunday rotates every week, always. The selection is deterministic: the app knows which week of the year you are living in and shows the matching Big Sunday. It does not depend on connection, time zone, or anything. You can play on a plane and it is there.
If you did not play last week's Big Sunday, it stays in the archive, accessible. Nothing gets lost. The rhythm is editorial cadence, not an implacable clock.
The Brazilian newspaper crossword was born in the 1920s in magazines (O Tico-Tico, Coquetel) and consolidated in newspapers in the 1950s. It crossed the 1970s and 1980s as a Sunday ritual of the average Brazilian family. Whoever was born before 1990 almost certainly remembers someone in the family who dedicated themselves to the Sunday crossword every weekend.
The Big Sunday is continuation of that rhythm. Not a nostalgic rescue, not a homage with air quotes. It is the same thing, in the format that makes sense in 2026: an app on the phone, with editorial typography, with no ads, free.
Common questions. Is the Big Sunday free? Yes. The Big Sunday is free for everyone, always. You do not need to sign up or subscribe to open the Big Sunday of the week. How many Big Sundays are in the archive? 52 in the opening archive, one per week of the year. A new one enters the rotation each week. Can I play a previous week's Big Sunday? Yes. Previous Big Sundays stay in the archive, accessible at any time. On which day does the Big Sunday rotate? It is weekly, synced with the current week. When a new calendar week begins, a new Big Sunday appears highlighted in the library.
Cruzadinha BLA is on the App Store, free. Download at https://apps.apple.com/app/cruzadinha-bla/id6769588425, or open the app page at https://bla.vc/apps/cruzadinha.
