It is pleasant for the people to consider playing cards as small rectangular leaves made of cardboard or plastic, with various designations and patterns. They are used for card games, as well as for fortune telling. Each card has a design and an individual name.
It is generally accepted that the cards come from China, but also the countries that gave the world cards can be confidently considered Poland, Germany and France, because among their peoples card games were no less common than in China.
Deck composition
A standard card deck consists of 36 cards, but this is considered a modern version, but initially there were 54 cards in the deck: 36 main and 18 auxiliary. Each card is "repeated" 4 times - one in each of the four suits.
Of interest are the names and pictures depicted on playing cards. Many are accustomed to seeing half and mirrored figures of kings and queens, but this is the trend of the New Time, and in the old days the figures of cards were drawn in full growth.
All cards in the deck are divided into four suits, which are commonly called:
- hearts;
- tambourines;
- clubs;
- peaks.
Map Legend
Cards of clubs and spades are usually denoted in black, and diamonds and spades in red. Cards are numbered and depicted in the form of pictures. The numerical cards include the smallest cards in seniority, and the more significant “pictures”, such as ace, king, queen, jack. Ace is the most significant card, in many translations it appears as "deputy head" or "deputy king". The word "ace" in translation from Greek means "sower of slander", and from German almost a devil. Either way, this card is devious and gives a lot of power.
The position of the king and queen cards in the deck is obvious, and the name speaks for itself. The same cannot be said about the jack card. Translated from French, "jack" is a servant, on the card he is depicted as a young man in the guise of a squire.
Suits
The history of the origin of the names of the suits in the cards is very interesting. Previously, instead of the usual rush or worms, there were the following designations:
- cups;
- swords;
- wands;
- denarii.
The cups that were awarded to the winners turned over time into hearts resembling the shape of a cup and heartfelt gratitude, and wands into clubs or crosses. Denarii turned into tambourines, and swords became sharp peaks, in fact, denoting weapons.
Some decks have another card called the joker. On the card, the joker is depicted as a jester in color or black and white, he rarely plays, but his move is always designed to confuse the plans (cards) of opponents.
