Thirty-three is ll'anne 'e Cristo, the years of Christ: the age tradition gives him at the crucifixion. It is the one square where the figure is a number rather than a thing, which makes it the most self-explanatory entry on the board.
Both Naples and Sicily keep it. The Trapani list writes l'anni du Signuri, the years of the Lord, which is the same reckoning in another dialect.
- 33
- Ll'anne 'e Cristo
- the years of Christ
- Row 31–40 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
Direct. Thirty-three is the traditional age, so the square holds the age. The interesting question is not where it came from but when, because it is not original.
Other things filed on 33
In Neapolitan life
Michele Zezza's Naples smorfia of 1835 puts Galera — the prison hulk, the galleys — on 33, not the years of Christ. Somewhere in the following century and a half a sentence at hard labour was replaced by the age of Christ on the same square. Nobody recorded the change, and it is the clearest evidence in print that this grid is not ancient and unbroken but a list that people kept rewriting.
33 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Because 33 is the age tradition assigns him at the crucifixion. The number is the figure.
No. Zezza's printed Naples smorfia of 1835 has the galleys on 33. The religious reading replaced an earlier one at some point after that.