Card symbols - meanings and history

Card symbols

Which is the strongest card and which is the weakest? What does a traditional deck of cards look like, or are there different decks and different interpretations in each country? There are hundreds of questions, just like there are hundreds of cards, and we will try to answer a few of them now. So, we have already discussed how cards came to be in the article "The history of cards", and now we'll try to figure out how the symbols, meanings and suits of the cards have evolved, until we come to the traditional deck of cards, which we've played many games with.

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The first Chinese cards

Ancient China played with very different cards than today. They are elongated (about 5,5 cm high and 1,5 cm wide) and narrower. They depict various symbols and legendary creatures that are not well understood and have little meaning. The oldest ones date back to 1120.

Indian Cards

Indian cards are very similar to Roman cards. They are rectangular or circular, painted in bright colours and decorated with gold. The deck consists of 7 or 8 families of 12 cards (a ruler, a vizier and 10 spectacle cards). The families are also marked with swords, bells, kabbalah talismans, pagodas, ivory sculptures and other symbols. Similar cards, apparently derived from Indian cards, were also found in the Persian Empire.

Arabic Cards

Arabic cards usually depicted a ruler and his subordinate, the vizier. Europeans replaced them with their own rulers - kings or emperors - and knights - a senior and a junior. The latter was depicted as an armourer or infantryman, while the senior knight was often depicted as a knight.

Egyptian Cards

In 1377, sources found in Basel tell of a new development - card wood: "The usual card wood has four kings seated on thrones, each holding a different sign in his hand... The king is followed by two marshals. They also have a sign, but one is upside down. Then there are 10 spectacle cards, marked with dots from one to ten. There are 52 cards in the pile. This is thought to refer to an Egyptian deck of cards, which was common among slave soldiers.

German, Swiss cards

From Spain and Italy, the cards spread to Switzerland and Germany, but again they were very different. Instead of the King's (ruler's) assistant, there were senior and junior knight cards. The knights could be distinguished by the way they raised the coat of arms - the senior knight held the coat of arms raised at the top, the junior knight held the coat of arms lowered at the bottom.

French Cards

It was only later that it was realised that the most important thing in cards was not the colours and the fine designs, but the mark that denoted the value of the card. The French were the first to standardise cards, followed by the English. The symbols of French cards became established by the end of the 15th century. Akine cards were very easy to produce, with just a few stencils. Court cards were more work, but there were only 12 of them in a French deck. The Queen had already appeared among them, taking the place of the Senior Knight. One of the more interesting phases in the history of cards is that not all cards in the old days had queens. Italian, Spanish, Swiss and German cards do not have queens even today. The "discrimination" against female cards is said to be linked to the history of cards.

Souvenir cards

In the old days, the upper classes were very fond of very beautiful, elaborate, even artwork-like cards, which were more suited for admiring than playing games. For example, the now common spectacle card depicted a full-length maiden, the queen a huge coat of arms with a crown and three different shields, and the jack a group of knights seated around a table. The cards were not only red or black, but the card families were represented by realistically drawn symbols in other colours.

In the 19th century, one-off sets began to be produced, depicting aristocrats, cultural, political and literary figures, and even historical figures. Such cards were still a fashionable souvenir.

The world's card museums have preserved wooden cards, painted on plant leaves, etc. There are known sets of cards on beer corks or beer steins, on plastic decks (as dominoes), etc. There are even cards on gold foil.

Classic deck of cards

The standard deck of cards that we still play with today was first designed by the French artist Ageno. The 52 cards in the deck represented the number of weeks in the year and the 4 of hearts represented the seasons. The cards were and are usually made of a special paper or plastic. A particular set of cards is called a deck. Depending on the type of game, it consists of different numbers of cards, e.g. 24, 26, 32, 36, 40, 48, 52-56, 106, 110 cards, etc.

Lithuania is also played with the classic deck of cards, which consists of four families of cards - Drums, Clubs, Hearts and Wines.

Drums (usually marked with red diamonds);

Chirvai, otherwise - worms, lamentations or redheads (marked with red hearts);

Pikai, otherwise - wines, Leaves (indicated by black leaf marks);

Crosses, otherwise - deep, acorns (indicated by cloverleaf-shaped markings).

It may look quite different in different countries. For example, in Switzerland, the cards symbols Shields, roses, bells, acorns, and in Germany, card families are represented by hearts, bells, leaves and acorns. In southern Europe, in Spain or western Italy, they are represented by cups, coins, cuckoos and swords, and in the Adriatic region of Italy by coins, swords, cups and crenulations. Most of these cards have a unique, ancient appearance and are similar to the first European cards.

Returning to the card families, it is important to note that each card has a different rank, which is indicated by the image, number or letter in the corner of the card, next to the type symbol. Cards are classified according to their rank as follows akines and Manor, or ponines, cards.

Blind cards:

• Gemini
• Triacs
• Keturake
• Pentacles
• Sheshakeh
• Seven-legged
• Eight-eyes
• Nine-legged
• Decathlon

Court cards:

• Valets (also known as bartukais or Boys) are denoted by the letter J.
• Ladies (also known as virgins) are denoted by the letter Q
• Kings are denoted K raide

Aces, the 13th card in the family, denoted by the letter A.

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Symbols of the cards and the meaning of the images

Interestingly, all the picture cards depicted real historical heroes, kings, nobles and rulers. King of Hearts - Charlemagne, the king of drums - Julius Caesar, King of Crosses - Alexander the Great and the King of Spades - a famous biblical character David. Incidentally, the King of Hearts is the only one depicted without a moustache and is also called the Suicide King, because unlike the other three kings, who hold a sword in their hand, this one has his sword pointed at his head and appears to be stabbing himself in the head.

There are also notable personalities in the Queen's deck of cards. Queen of Hearts Regina, drum queen Key - historical figure from the Hebrew Bible, queen of the cross Regina and pitches - Judith - a figure from the Bible.

Cardiac Valet - Lancelot was King Arthur's most trusted knight, the drum - Hector - Prince of Troy from Greek mythology, the cross - La Hire - a warlord in the Hundred Years' War and the Picts - Dan Hogier.

The value of the cards depends on their rank and the rules of the game. An Ace can be either the highest or the lowest ranked card. Cards are usually ranked as follows: (A), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, (A). Cards of the same rank are called singletons. However, there are some games where the hierarchy of cards is slightly different, depending on the rules of the particular game. For example, in Thousand, the ten is the second card after the ace and is considered to be senior to the other queen cards - jack, queen, king. There are other variations of the hierarchy.

Composition and design of decks of cards

In addition to the regular 52 cards, there are also 2 or 4 special cards in the deck - known as jokers, jokers, joker joker - The Jester). The purpose of these cards depends on the rules of the game - they can be used in place of other cards in the deck, or they can have the highest power (highest rank). The history of the origin of these cards is consistent with the origin of the other pony cards. As already mentioned, the cards were primarily intended for the entertainment of the nobility and could be said to reflect the hierarchy of the nobility at the time: kings, queens, knights and valets. History records that most palaces had jesters, who had more rights than ordinary courtiers. The jesters not only made the banqueters laugh, but often even mocked their lords.

Please note !

The cards are also of two suits - spades and clubs are black, and hearts and diamonds are red. Modern card manufacturers try to attract players by releasing cards with different coloured symbols in order to generate publicity and higher profits. For example, there are German and Swiss cards with symbols that are not black and red, but four different colours - black, red, green and blue. In the USA, cards have been issued with the usual black symbols of wines and crosses in red and, conversely, hearts and drums in black.

The most common cards are those in which, for the players' convenience, the images are drawn symmetrically, in the mirror principle, where the cards have no top and no bottom, and the cards look the same from all sides when held in the hand, no matter how the card is placed. The cards are usually rectangular, approximately 60 × 90 mm. Smaller cards of about 40×60 mm, known as Passion Cards. However, the cards produced for advertising and commercial purposes can come in a wide variety of shapes: round, oval, or even in the shape of various objects such as a fish, a Christmas tree, a heart, a mummy, a star, etc.