Playcards . Why kings , queens , etc . Why different symbuls ? Any idea , folks ?

Answer 1

In playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card. Most card decks also have a rank for each card, and may include special cards in the deck that belong to no suit.

Popular legend holds that the composition of a deck of cards has religious, metaphysical or astronomical significance: typical numerological elements of the explanation are that the four suits represent the four seasons, the 13 cards per suit are the 13 phases of the lunar cycle, black and red are for day and night, the 52 cards of the deck (joker excluded) symbolizes the number of weeks in a year, and finally, if the value of each card is added up — and 1 is added, which is generally explained away as being for a single joker — the result is 365, the number of days in a year.

Europeans changed the court cards to represent European royalty and attendants, originally "king", "chevalier", and "knave" (or "servant"). Queens were introduced in a number of different ways. In an early surviving German pack (dated in the 1440s), Queens replace Kings in two of the suits as the highest card. Throughout the 1400s, 56-card decks containing a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet were common. Suits also varied; many makers saw no need to have a standard set of names for the suits, so early decks often had different suit names (typically 4 suits, although 5 suits also had been common and other structures are also known).

Answer 2

There are hundreds of different decks of playing cards, ranging in size from the four suit, 13 card deck commonly used in English speaking countries, to decks of up to 78 cards used in Tarot. Along with the different number of cards in the deck, the symbols are different as well and each has its own history. There are some really interesting stories about how each of these various decks originated.
In the case of the English deck, with the kinds, queens, and jacks (Jack, or knave, is an old word for the Prince, so the face cards represent the royal family) the ranking cards were added in place of numbering cards up to 13, which was an unlucky number. No one wanted to play cards with a deck that had a card numbered 13. The three face cards are ranked, as are the numbers from 1-10, so each card has a different value from every other card.

Answer 3

Each king and queen represent an existing person, like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, etc.

Answer 4

I've found a lot of information on the origins of playing cards. Here's a site explaining kings and queens:
http://poker.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=poker&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snopes.com%2Fhistory%2Fworld%2Fcardking.htm

History:
http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00804/history-playing-cards-frameset.htm
http://www.wopc.co.uk/index.html

Joker:
http://www.geocities.com/a_pollett/cardjokr.htm

All these sites have links to the history and spread of the use of cards, and their different symbols.

Finally:
http://i-p-c-s.org/history.html

Answer 5

uhm, just go to this link, its copyrighted so i don't want to get sued, lol