ROME (dpa) – For most people, the interpretation of dreams is better left to psychiatrists. For some Italians deconstructing Morpheus, one of the sons of the god of sleep, could turn you into a millionaire.
Like their Freudian counterparts, these dreamers rack their brains in a bid to make sense of their sleeping life. But it is plain numbers, rather than complex workings of inner psychology, that they are mostly concerned with.
Because for thousands of gamblers across the country, assigning the right numbers to a dream can help them pick the winning numbers at the state lottery.
Few people in Europe are as superstitious and as assiduous in gambling as the Italians. And few Italians display more contempt for the rational than the Neapolitans.
Rooted in the ancient Cabala, a system of Jewish mystical theology developed in the 12th century, the art of translating the meaning of dreams into numbers for lottery purposes was refined in Naples, and is as old as the game itself.
Called “La Smorfia” – Italian for “a wry face” – the technique has brushed off the advent of the Enlightenment, of television and of the computer with spectacular nonchalance. Dozens of books are still written on the subject while newspapers happily translate major news events into winning combinations. On the day that terrorists attacked the United States, for example, Rome’s leading paper advised its readers to gamble on the numbers 11, 9 and 76. The first two numbers refer to the event’s date, while 76 is the number it associated with terrorist attacks.
Indeed, modern technology is helping, rather than putting off, Smorfia lovers. Internet sites provide automatic dream interpretation – “just type in a key word and click to get the right number” – while charlatans crowd the airwaves with promises to do the same through more archaic means.
The lottery, according to historians, is a Venetian or Florentine invention of the early 16th century. Its present-day form, in which players are asked to guess 5 out of 90 numbers drawn at random, dates back to 1576.
In that year, the Doge of Genoa, Andrea Doria, set up a local government reform whereby candidates applying to replace 5 retiring members of ruling colleges were chosen by drawing numbered balls from a single urn. The ball originally contained 120 balls, reflecting the total number of candidates, but was later reduced to 90.
According to Smorfia advocates, nothing happens by chance and every action or event that takes place around Man always hides a concrete meaning. It is just a question of applying the right interpretation.
Numbers, for their part, are “a divine essence” created to act as intermediaries between the conscious and the subconscious, between the rational and the magical world.
As such, so the logic goes, each of the 90 numbers that the layman believes are picked at random each week should in fact be associated with a given event or situation expressed by dreams.
The number “1”, for instance, is associated with “a beginning” and ” initiative”; The number “30” is paired with “good things” while “50” is associated with “conquest”. If you dream of guessing the right numbers at the lottery, therefore, you should bet on 1, 30 and 50.
At present, the Italian government organises 10 extractions, in as many cities, twice a week.
Although there is a small prize for guessing just one number, picking all five is rewarded with one million times the gambled amount. Because the theoretical odds are far higher than the odds offered, about half of the total staked end up filling the state’s coffers.
With millions of gamblers spending more than 30 trillion lire (14 billion dollars) betting on numbers, football results or horse racing each year, that’s no loose change.
Loredana Barbori has worked for 12 years in one of Rome’s historic lotto shop, situated a few metres away from Italy’s parliament.
According to her, playing according to Smorfia rules is an increasingly popular activity.
“It used to be an old ladies’ game, but now everybody does it: young and old, rich and poor.”
Trying to persuade her that dreams have nothing to do with which numbers are picked each week is like asking a newborn baby not to wet his nappy – completely pointless.
“Of course it works, I myself have won several times thanks to La Smorfia,” she said.
