Of card games

Playing cards has long been a source of entertainment for both young and old alike. Card games have become so much a part of our lives that even in the internet age; we still have digitized versions of those games on our computers.

The usual appearance of the cards has remained unchanged over the years. The symbols for each suit are the same as they were when they were introduced to England in the 15th or 16th century. The jack, queen, and king of the pack today look a lot like they did that day; their costumes are similar to those of the royal court of England in the Renaissance. Decks of cards were divided into four suits in China and this practice continued in Europe. The French divided the deck into four suits that supposedly represented the four main divisions of humanity: the nobility, represented by a sword (piqué); the clergy, represented by a heart; merchants and merchants, represented by a diamond (diamond); and the peasantry, represented by a club (clover). These four suits were adopted by the English and are known today as spades (from the Spanish sword, which means sword), hearts, diamonds, and clubs. The highest cards of each suit, the actual, court, or picture cards, are of obvious derivation. The intricate patterns on each picture card are said to have specific meanings, as does the type and position of symbols on the card. After the revolutions in the United States, France, and Russia, efforts were made in those countries to eliminate references to royalty in card games, but the symbols had become so accepted by card players that card games were abandoned. attempts to change them. Other efforts to alter the traditional appearance of playing cards have met with little success. Four colors have been used instead of two for the four suits, different arrangements of the nuggets have been tried on the cards, and cards with black backgrounds have been introduced. In 1937 an additional suit, called Eagles in the United States and Crowns in England, was added and a five-suit bridge game was introduced. It had limited success.

Usually four costumes are kept in each culture, but they are not necessarily the same. The German costume used hearts, bells, acorns, and leaves or grass. The Swiss-German costume used roses, bells, acorns, and shields. The Spanish and Italian (north) that follow had cups, coins, maces, and swords. India has badam, charkat, kilawar, and ispik.