Playing cards have been part of human culture for centuries, and over that long period of time, a great deal of myth, anecdote, and fun facts about card games have accumulated. We’ve all shuffled, picked, dealt, picked up, and played classic playing cards, it all starts in childhood with the Mau-Mau game.
Rarely, however, do we think about what deeper meanings and developmental history are hidden in a deck of cards. For which games of chance you can use it, as well as other online poker strategies in particular, you can only find out from us.
We have compiled interesting facts about the cultural history of the card game in the following fact checks. Best non Gamstop games you find on Gambligpro.
The Magic of Numbers
Lots of numbers with hidden meanings are hidden in a deck of cards. Can it really be a coincidence that a complete deck consists of 52 cards – as many as there are weeks in a year? These cards are divided into four suits – as many as there are seasons? Not to mention that a month also consists of four weeks and we know four elements. They correspond to the four card suits, with hearts corresponding to water, clubs to fire, spades to air and diamonds to earth. Each suit has 13 cards. 12 cards depict images such as the king or the jack. This corresponds to the twelve months of the year and the 12 signs of the zodiac.
In Japan, there is even a deck of 12 suits, each containing four cards. The colors symbolize the months of the year. 13 cards belong to each suit, and the moon has 13 phases. And finally: black and red can be interpreted as symbols for night and day.
In the Beginning, It Was Purely a Matter for Men!
Early decks only knew male faces, i.e. jacks and kings, no queens. Knights took over their role. Until then, from the 15th century, it slowly became common practice to replace these knights with ladies, initially in France. There it became customary to give these ladies the faces of famous queens from history and mythology.
Handwork With a Headstand!
For us today, cards are rectangular pieces of paper or plastic with a smooth surface sealed with a protective layer. It wasn’t always like that. One of the facts about card games is that early in their history, ivory tablets were handled and arranged in a manner similar to dominoes.
There were even round cards. Playing cards were adopted in Europe from Asia and were initially only for the higher classes. The cards were hand-painted, had no rounded corners, and were not sealed. They were also only readable in one direction, meaning they were upside down for players on the other side of the table. The card game only penetrated all levels of society with the development of printing techniques that made card production cheaper. Today, playing cards are made from multiple layers of paper as well as plastic.
The Devil’s Prayer Book
As the card game became more prevalent, the clergy stepped in, rejecting it as a temptation to sinful living, drunkenness, and fighting. The church banned card games. There were also secular prohibitions. In 15th-century England, for example, playing cards was illegal most of the year except at Christmas time. That changed in the 17th century, but the king introduced a card tax that made them expensive to buy. In the age of the Internet, poker in particular has experienced an upswing. Many online poker strategies were developed for this card game and tried out on online portals.
Fateful Ace of Spades
The ace of spades is one of the cards that have been attributed special properties. This originally goes back to the time of the English card tax already mentioned. It gave special meaning to the ace of spades, as this was the card bearing the tax stamp. In the 20th century, US soldiers ascribed fateful power to the ace of spades, interestingly within a few decades with completely opposite meanings. During World War II, it adorned the helmets of American soldiers who believed it to bring good luck. However, during the Vietnam War, US troops used the symbol to invoke misfortune on their Viet Cong opponent.
Cards Aren’t Just for Non GamStop Casinos Games!
Again and again, cards were not only used for gambling. The reverse side used to be blank, so it didn’t have any patterns and could be written on. In times when the paper was scarce and expensive, cards became notes, and even more: one even sent love letters on them.
In the 18th century in the Netherlands, playing cards were often found among foundlings whose mothers had seen no other way out of sheer poverty than to leave them in front of a church door, which was the cheapest piece of paper at the time. The mother then asked that the child be mercifully taken care of and wrote down his name. One of the most surprising facts about playing cards is that during World War II, they were used to guide some US soldiers out of German POW camps. A set of playing cards was part of the supply of prisoners of war, the US government was allowed to supply them with it. The maps were prepared: if they got wet, you could uncover a hidden layer of paper with clues to possible escape routes from the camp.
