How Italians play the Lotto with downright bizarre superstitions!

Much has been written about Italian superstitions. Most of the time, this is due to differences in our superstitions. The number 17 is associated with Italian superstition, which corresponds to 13 for us. The Italians have a bad day on Friday the 17th. They consider the number 13 to be a lucky number. A dinner for 13 people is an exception to this rule. Because it reminds her of the Last Supper, during which a traitor sat at the table.

Superstition and faith

Faith and superstition share a common ancestor. In ancient times, one nation would leave a dead person, while another would bury it, leaving food and weapons at the burial site. Gradually, the disparities widened, and one person saw an act as religious, while another saw it as superstition.

Paganism, for example, was considered a superstition by Emperor Constantine in 300 AD. Tacitus, a pagan statesman, thought Christianity was a dangerous and irrational faith around the same time. Later, Protestants saw the veneration of saints and relics by Catholics as a sign of superstition. And again, Catholics drew this conclusion from Hindu rites. And so forth.

Italian superstitions

Faith is an explanation for the superstitions of Italians and others. All superstitions, in general, stem from ignorance and fear. It arose long ago, during a time when people were afraid of the unknown. Rituals arose as a result of the fears. Don’t walk under a ladder, take a rabbit’s foot, or make a four-leaf clover wish. There are hundreds of rituals for happiness and hundreds of rituals for unhappiness. Originally intended to have a positive influence on evil spirits. In today’s complex world, having something to cling to is essential.

Even those who claim to be superstitious have rituals that resemble these old customs. Despite the fact that they are frequently no longer recognized as such, and in extreme cases, we dismiss them as compulsive behavior.

We all know Italy as the land of faith. That is most likely the source of superstition. Superstition-related keywords appear to rank high on Google Italia. The most searched words are horoscope and tarot, which are ranked third and fifth, respectively.

When a Milanese is asked about his superstitions, he laughs. He’ll say that Italian superstitions are something from the south. It’s unclear if this has always been the case. When it comes to superstition, there have been more references to Sicily, particularly Naples, in recent centuries.

Smorfia Neapolitana

Formalized paraphrase Nowadays, the superstition of the Italians quickly points to the Neapolitan Smorfia. This is especially true when it comes to lotto superstitions. The book La Smorfia is a dream book, and some Italians refer to it as the sacred dream book. Respectfully, you could also think of it as reverse numerology.

After having a dream, you can look up your lucky lotto number in the book. The explanation of the Smorfia on many websites is based on an image of only 90 people, animals, and things that can appear in a dream. That is, however, a simplified, modern promotion of a lottery organization. In the Italian lotto, you have a total of 90 numbers to choose from.

In reality, the Smorfia contains hundreds of examples of situations, many of which are detailed. If you dream of drowning, for example, there is a distinction between drowning in a well, the sea, and the wild water of a river. It also matters whether the drowning victim was a woman, a young man, or a child.

The Smorfia’s beginnings

The Smorfia’s origins can be traced back to a time before the lotto was invented. The name is most likely derived from the Greek Morpheus. In ancient Greece, this was the god of sleep. Smorfia dream books have been discovered in a variety of locations throughout Italy, making it difficult for historians to pinpoint their precise location. The Jewish Kabbalah is the most commonly sought explanation.

According to this mysticism, no sign, word, or letter is meaningless, whether hidden or not. The well-known Greek philosopher Pythagoras is also mentioned by Italians. He emigrated after the Italian Croton more than 500 years ago, and he specialized in numbers and meaning.

You could then continue in a calendar with references using the number found in the Smarofia. You could see what the day had in store for you. Alternatively, superstitious Italians used the number in a different way to predict their future.

Tradition

Initially, people passed on their dreams and numbers orally to one another. They were later written down. Images were added because there were so many illiterates. The dream interpretation, on the other hand, went further and became more precise. They eventually stopped using the images. The coding, as the dream interpretation was also known, improved.

As demonstrated by the drowning example. The details in other situations in dreams became much more elaborate. If you dreamed of a game, for example, each game turned out to have its own number. A horse game has 81, a football game has 50, a card game has 17, and a chess set has 22.

Lotto and Smorfia

The traditional smorfia gradually fell out of favor. Dream interpretation, on the other hand, never died in Naples. However, the Smorfia’s popularity resurfaced in the 18th century. That occurred around the time of the legalization of the lotto, the Italian lottery. Then it gradually reappeared throughout Italy, becoming part of the Italians’ superstition.

Occasionally, a publisher would update the book and expand on the dream’s interpretation. Around the verb to eat, at least 100 details can already be found. From eating vegetables, fruits, and fish to eating with your hands, eating live animals, and sweetening dishes (40, 56, 63, 72, 27, and 19).

The current circumstance

As previously stated, Italian superstitions still exist. The Smorfia is less popular among young people. They always have a grandmother or an elderly aunt who has the book or knows the numerology of dreams from personal experience. And, as previously stated, superstitions are a part of human history. Young people can now look up the smorfia numbers using a smartphone app.