Playing cards has been a source of entertainment and fun for centuries. For hundreds of years, people have been playing them for fun, gambling with them, and even guessing with them! They are a truly international game and universally known and recognized. 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 of a direct way, in fact, you may know that many card games you like.
The history of card games is rich and varied and illustrates just how versatile this old game really is.
Let’s first look at the deck of cards. A deck or deck is made up of 52 playing 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 the jack, queen, and king. In most games, the value of 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 personalized design or image, this depends on who printed the cards. Businesses and casinos have their own customer designs. There are also traditional ornate card designs and colors which are usually 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 playing cards.
Throughout the year, literally hundreds of games have been created and passed down through the generations. Traditional card games are still played, such as 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 tell the future. The fortune tellers use the suits and the cards that are dealt so that the questioner can glimpse her 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.
It is believed that the four suits represent the four seasons of the year, and that each card is a day. When I had the cards up, they come up to 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 to be so many hundreds of years ago.
The next time you grab a pack 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 packages in mint condition fetch literally thousands of dollars and more. The older they are, and if all the cards are present, they can get big money.