The rich history of playing cards
Playing cards has been a source of fun and amusement for centuries. For hundreds of years, people have played with them for fun, gambling with them and even guessing with them! They are a truly international and universally known and recognized game. With literally hundreds of game variations that can be played and enjoyed by any number of players, from an individual to a group. What are your favorite card games to play? There is no doubt that you can think in a simple way, in fact, you may know many card games that you enjoy.
The history of card games is rich and varied and illustrates just how versatile this old game really is.
Let’s look at the deck of cards first. A deck or pack consists of 52 cards. They are made up of four suits, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds and Spades. Each suit is made up of numbered and face cards, the numbers range from Ace to 10, and then the face cards are Jack, Queen and King. In most games, the value of the Ace can be counted as high or low depending on the rules of the game. For example, in Poker and Black Jack the Aces are high.
On the back of the cards there is usually a custom design or image, this depends on who printed the cards. Companies and casinos have their own customer designs made. There are also traditional ornate card designs and colors that are typically red, blue, or black. There is also a wide variety of designs and themes for the costumes. Even well-known movie franchises like Star Wars and Marvel comics have created their own suits of cards.
Throughout the year, literally hundreds of games have been created and passed down from generation to generation. Traditional card games are still played, like poker, as mentioned above. But there are also fun games like Solitaire, Hearts, Go-fish, Trumps and more.
For years, cards have been used to divine luck. Fortune tellers use the suits and cards that are dealt to give the questioner a glimpse of their future. Whether you believe in this or not, there is no doubt that it is an art in itself and something that is still popular with many people today.
The four suits are believed to represent the four seasons of the year, and that each card is a day. When you had the cards, they reached 365, which is the total number of days in the year. There are many little facts like this that add to the interest and mystery of playing cards and how they came about so many hundreds of years ago.
The next time you pick up a deck of cards and start playing, think about how historic they really are. Many books have been published on this subject and for many it has become a hobby and a passion. At auction houses around the world, older, undamaged packs cost literally thousands of dollars and more. The older they are, and if all the cards are present, they can get huge sums of money.
