"Jousting" Playing Cards

Everyone today is familiar with the four suits in a deck of cards: hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs. But in their early days in Europe, there was an assortment of different designs. In Spain and parts of Italy, there were coins, cups, clubs and swords. In other areas of Italy, batons replaced clubs. In Switzerland, you could find shields, roses and bells. And in Germany, you were offered not only hearts, acorns, leaves and bells, but also apes, dogs, unicorns and rabbits. It was France that originated the four suits we use today. When created, they were symbolic: The church was represented by hearts, the aristocracy by spades, the military by diamonds and the peasants by clubs. France also coloured the cards the way we now know them, with clubs and spades painted black and hearts and diamonds painted red. The face cards of today (jacks, queens and kings) also got the garb we now see them in.