The Neapolitan 'Smorfia'

Neapolitan Smorfia history

There is not an identifiable and clear smorfia's history in the literature but there are several legends about its presumed origins.

One of the them that is most credited link the origins of smorfia at the Jewish cabala (Qàbbalah) that uses numerology to assign to each name a number. Others attribute the trend to associate numbers to events to Samo Pitagora (575 b.C).



The popular Italian traditions endorsed this doctrine and has given expression through the 'smorfia', there is not an unique smorfia, as example, there is the famous Neapolitan smorfia (Naples is a beautiful city in southwestern Italy) and there are others one as regional brands like the Marches, Sicilian and Emilia-Romagna (Italian region).



Although the italian lotto (lottery) has not been introduced in Naples from beginnings, (in fact born in Genoa in 1539 and came to Naples officially 150 years later) is in this passionate folk city, that it is mostly integrated into popular culture, so today many neapolitan people use daily the neapolitan smorfia to extract lucky numbers.
Each number is associated with an event and vice versa, and in the Neapolitan tradition are also included in smorfia saints or religious events (Mary, mother of Jesus, is associated with the number 8) and characters of the modern landscape, or the recent past. (For example, Diego Armando Maradona is associated with the number 10).