Here are five hidden facts you may not know about playing cards.
Playing cards date back hundreds of years, and there's been some speculation about why a deck of cards has 52 cards, four suits, two colors, etc. Some believe that the two colors, red and back, represent night and day. The four suits represent the four seasons of the year.
Now in a deck you have 12 court cards (4 x J-Q-K) which could represent the 12 months of the year. There are also 12 animals in the cycle of the Chinese calendar, or 12 zodiac symbols. There are 13 cards in each suit. 13 could represent the lunar cycle. The moon travels around the earth 13 times a year. And there are also 13 weeks per season. 52 cards in a deck, 52 weeks in a year.
Coincidents? Now there's a myth that says that if you add up all the single values of the cards together, they will give 365. Now this myth is false, but if you do the math, take the average value of a playing card, which is seven, multiply that by the number of suits, which is four, and multiply that by the number of card in every suit, which is 13, that should give you 364, add a Joker, 365. Add last Joker will give you the leap year.
Another little hidden Easter egg within the deck of cards is the 8 of diamonds. How many eights do you see here? Now you probably see the two indices on each corner, but if you take a look at the negative space, you can actually see another eight.
Which brings me to fact number three, if you perfectly shuffle a deck of cards, one card per one card, this is known as a fair shuffle. If you do this eight time in a row, the deck will return to its original order.