The Smorfia
The origins of the Neapolitan grimace are not known, or rather, there is no certain kind of news about them. Very often it is associated with the Jewish cabala, which exploits numbers, associating them with names, in a mystical form, with the aim of reinterpreting reality, finding those hidden meanings that are hidden behind reality. The cabala of Neapolitan origin, in practice, was renamed by the Neapolitans as Smorfia: it is the satirical interpretation of numbers and dreams, a practice that certainly has very little, but which nevertheless is taken very seriously, becoming the its observance, in some circumstances, a mystical experience. A bit of history
If an officially recognized origin is not identifiable, it is undoubtedly possible to better define what has influenced, over time, the development of the grimace. In addition to the Western Kabbalah, the “Book of Dreams” has had a very significant weight: it is a book by Artemidoro di Daldi , the first treatise on oneiromancy that allowed to identify the meaning of specific dreams through a given symbolism. But even in the medieval period there are numerous works that gave a hand to the birth of the “cabala” of Naples: above all, the “Philosophical, cabalistic and theological conclusions” by Pico della Mirandola had a very significant and clearly identifiable influence. Different types of grimaces and numbers
The grimace, to put it more simply, allows you to “recover” numbers from people, circumstances and events, be they real or dreamlike. The numbers are then played in the most common lotteries, or in the lotto and Superenalotto game. The Neapolitan grimace is made up of 90 numbers , as many as those of the lotto game, each different from the others, to which an element or event is associated. In the tradition of Naples, saints and religious events are also included within the “numbers” : the number 8, for example, is associated with the “Maronna”, or the Madonna. It is very important not to confuse the Neapolitan grimace with the modern grimace: an evolution of the Neapolitan one, extended to the various regions of the peninsula, especially the southern ones, in which there is a tendency to insert numerous characters, not only from the tradition, but also from the modern era.
Below, here are the 90 numbers of the Neapolitan grimace , with the character or event to which they are associated:
1 Italy
2 Girl
3 Cat
4 Pig
5 Hand
6 Looking on the ground
7 The vase
8 A Madonna
9 The sonship
10 The beans
11 The mice
12 The soldiers
13 Saint Anthony
14 The drunkard
15 The boy
16 The butt
17 To misfortune
18 The blood
19 A laugh
20 At party
21 A naked woman
22 or crazy
23 or fool
24 And guards
25 Christmas
26 Anna
27 Or chamber pot
28 The boobs
29 The pope
30 And the lieutenant’s balls
31 The landlord
32 or capitone
33 The years of Christ
34 The skull
35 The little bird
36 The castanets
37 The monk
38 The blows
39 The rope around the neck
40 The hernia
41 The knife
42 The coffee
43 Woman on the balcony
44 The prisons
45 The wine
46 The money
47 The dead man who speaks
48 The dead
49 The piece of meat
50 The bread
51 The garden
52 The mother
53 The old man
54 The hat
55 The music
56 The fall
57 The hunchback
58 The bundle
59 The hairs
60 Complaining
61 The hunter
62 The murdered
63 The bride
64 The tailcoat
65 The crying
66 The two spinsters
67 The octopus
68 The cooked soup
69 Upside down
70 The palace
71 The coward
72 The wonder
73 The hospital
74 The cave
75 Pulcinella
76 The fountain
77 The little devils
78 The whore
79 The thief
80 The mouth
81 The flowers
82 The table set
83 Bad weather
84 The church
85 Souls in purgatory
86 The shop
87 Lice
88 The caciocavallo
89 The old woman
90 Fear
