Surprisingly, the word ‘lottery’ appears frequently in the context of Polish dream books. It turns out that, thanks to the popularity of number games, consummate gamblers looked for hints regarding which numbers to gamble on pretty much everywhere – even in their dreams.
Lotteries appeared on Polish lands as early as the 17th century. In 1768, the Sejm allowed for a lottery to be organised, and it started to increase in popularity. By the 19th century, it had become more than a popular form of entertainment, reaching the level of a significant social phenomenon.
The history of lotteries reaches as far into the past as dream interpretation itself – both go back to antiquity. The frequency of interpreting dreams in terms of lottery numbers also suggests that publishing dream books must have simply paid off. We can picture hundreds of gamblers sleeping with notebooks under their pillows in order to note down, immediately upon waking up, dreams allegedly meant to ensure high winnings.
Sennik Loteryjny Nowy Przez Doświadczonego Loterją Gracza Napisany (A New Lottery Dream Book, Authored by an Experienced Gambler) was released in 1832 in Warsaw. According to it, those who dreamt of a stomach or a miracle ought to gamble on number 66. Dreaming of candy involved a suggestion to pick 46, while harvesting pepper in one’s garden – 29.
After Poland regained independence in 1920, the Sejm sanctioned the establishment of the Polish National Lottery. Sennik, Czyli Wykład Słów (Dream Book, or Explanation of Dreams), released in independent Poland (Wadowice, 1922), also includes an astrological explanation of the planets’ influence on human life and, apart from numbers assigned to dreams, offers short interpretations of the latter as well.
According to this dream book, those who dream of garlic ought to gamble on number 7, as garlic denotes annoyance. A tombstone, foreshadowing a loss of friendship, should direct the dreamer towards number 70. ‘A certain undoing’, in turn, awaits those who dream of a whale – they’ll perhaps be lucky if, in a lottery, they gamble on 27. Those who dream of monkeys are to expect ‘love gone cold’ and trust number 63.
‘Specious and harmful’