HISTORY
OF PLAYING CARDS :
The game of playing
cards began long back around 12th century in Europe and during B.C. period
in India and Egypt. During
the earlier stages of development
the number of cards has been sometimes 97 and some times 78 or 62. The
special attraction
of the bigger set of 97
was 21 cards called as outs. Gypsies who came from the east have introduced
the cards into Europe. In
England the card game was
thought as a Devil’s game from Asia. As we Indians think the devil’s dwelling
is towards the western
part of the world, the Europeans
think that anything remote and mysterious is devilish and Asiatic. Saint
Bernard in 1423 A.D.
said in a sermon that a
devil has invented the playing cards its origin can be traced back to Chinese
or Indian playing tablets
or discs which have a resemblance
of Ganjifa cards based on Hindu mythological stories and chess. There was
evidence that
there were games played
with cards in Egypt during the time of Joseph. Queen among the cards can
be traced back to Bible in
the book of Judith. King
was present in all nations packs queen was not present in Spain and
early German pack. In England
Edward IV banned playing
cards from Michaelmas day 29th Sept. 1464 A.D. Card playing was allowed
during Christmas by an
order in 1541. Noblemen
over 100 Pounds income per annum were allowed to play. in 1631 AD William
who was
cloth worker, contributed
much to the development of playing cards. King of hearts was King Charles
known as the Great Magne Charlem.
We will be giving more
details about the playing cards in coming months by covering each and every
card in a pack of playing
cards. Covering the history
from the beginning going through 14th & 15th century developments.
Tracing the origin of each
card from mythology and
History as we have covered in kings and queens here.
For more info contact us
at mushamd@hotmail.com
