It's All About The 52 : History Of Card Games

Card games has always fascinated people of all ages. From adda sessions with friends to events like meeting over a drink with colleagues, card games has been mankinds one of the favourite past time. But this set of 52 cards did not have the same appearance and suites from previous centuries. There is a rich and gradually development in the history of card games.

It is said, that the earliest card games was originated in Central Asia. In the 10th Century AD, Chinese people used paper like dominoes. They were fond of shuffling and dealing those dominoes into new games. Before 1000 AD in China, Dominoes with different possible combination of dots were made forming different cards of 52. Paper was the original material while wood and ivory was used for making dominoes much later. So without doubt China could be stated as one of the pioneers in card games.

Cards were introduced in Europe around 1350 AD . The signs that were primarily used were coins , cups , swords and sticks. European artists experimented with signs - introduced sceptors, baton and cudget(one of them is still known as clubs). In 1377 , there were charecters or face cards introduced - King , Queen, Valet, Knight, Lady and Maid. This category of cards generally belonged to the areas of Switzerland, Germany , Spain and France.But unfortunately none of these cards survived.

In the later half of the 15 th century , that is in 1470 AD, the French card makers made a revolutionary change in the history of cards. For the first time they introduced the system of four suits. These cards are the set of oldest surviving cards and were hand painted. Only wealthy families could afford such playing cards for leisure. By 17th century , there were even wood cut cards. The French traded these cards to the Brittish , thus the custom of playing cards reached the colonies of Brittish even America. Card indices was accepted in both European countries and colonies of America. The Kings , Queens and Jack of each suit were dedicated to a important charecters in world history. For example , in the heart suit the king was dedicated to King Charles of England , queen was dedicated to judita and jack was dedicated to La Hire. The other suites were dedicated to famous kings and queens as well , like Alexander the great was dedicated the king of clubs and Julius ceaser was dedicated the king of diamonds.

In 1870 , the Americans took the game of cards a step further. In addition to using round end cards and double ended figures, American card makers introduced a significant charecter which is the Joker. The Joker in some games is the most valued card and is known as 'The best bower'.

Generally most of the games in cards are matching games ( were you have to match all the cards and get rid of your hand of cards ), adding games (where have to add the values of each hand and score)and fishing games (were you have to keep the card in places). This sytem of cards is the modern existing system of cards.

Thus, we see that the history of cards shows the rich development in the aristrocrat's favourite past time game.