Joan Marton, age 13, of Fargo, N.D., for her question:
WHERE DID PLAYING CARDS ORIGINATE?
Historians tell us that playing cards probably originated in Hindustan about AD 800. The Chinese had playing cards by the 10th century, but before that ancient citizens in Egypt played games with illustrated pieces of pasteboard.
Playing cards first appeared in Europe during the late 14th century and soon they became popular for both gaming and gambling.
The first playing cards printed in Europe were picture cards, called tarots. There were 22 tarots in a deck and they were widely used for fortune telling.
The early cards of Eastern origin were numbered and divided into suits as are modern cards. There were 56 cards to a deck. During the 14th century the tarots and Eastern cards were combined to make a 78 card deck.
Eventually the deck was cut to various sizes in different countries. In Germany 32 and 36 card decks were adopted. The French used 32¬and 52 card decks.
The 52 card deck had four suits of 13 cards each. A suit is all the cards in a deck bearing the same symbol. Each suit had cards numbered from 2 to 10, three picture cards including the knave or jack, queen and king, and an ace. The 52 card French deck became the standard in English speaking countries.
Suits also varied from country to country. German suits, for instance, were marked by hearts, bells, leaves and acorns. The English adopted the French suit marks and called them spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Today the spades and clubs are printed in black while the hearts and diamonds are in red.
Hundreds of games can be played with cards. Various numbers of players can take part, depending on the game. Solitaire, or patience, as it used to be called, provides entertainment for just one player.
Casino is a popular card game played by just two people while two, three or four may play cribbage or pinochle. Four players take part in bridge or whist while the game of canasta calls for from two to six participants. As many as 10 can play poker.
Other popular card gemes include gin rummy, hearts, euchre, skat, blackjack, five hundred, red dog and piquet. Each game has its own set of rules.
The four suits originated in France during the 1500s. An object shaped like a clover leaf marked the suit called trefle, now known as the club suit. The tip of a spike was shown on the pique suit, now called the spade. The third suit was called coeur, the French word for heart. The name of the fourth suit, carreau, means square, but the word was translated as diamond because the spot is diamond shaped.
Suit marks varied from country to country and many had elaborate and beautiful designs. Progress in decorative back designs was slowed, however, because of gamblers' objections. They felt that cheating was less likely with plain back cards.
Playing cards also have been used for educational purposes. To make learning more enjoyable, decks of cards at one time had lessons in geography, history and various other subjects printed on them.