Tarot (/ˈtæroʊ/, first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi or tarocks) is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot-playing cards spread to most of Europe, evolving into a family of games that includes German Grosstarok and modern games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. In the late 18th century French occultists made elaborate, but unsubstantiated, claims about their history and meaning, leading to the emergence of custom decks for use in divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy. Thus, there are two distinct types of tarot packs in circulation: those used for card games and those used for divination. However, some older patterns, such as the Tarot de Marseille, originally intended for playing card games, are occasionally used for cartomancy.
We don't, or at least I have never tried it, but we have different card games for various types of cards, and we play these games more often than 'normal' card games. We also still have French playing cards for games like poker, blackjack, solitaire, and others, but they're just not our main type of cards.
Huh, now that you mention it, almost the same for Greece except for diamonds being more like "checkered" and for swords-sticks being the other way around for some reason. Also always thought it was weird!
I meannot really entirely correct. Slovenia does not use mainly german suits. Yes the southeast does often play briškula using the italian suits, but the res of the country uses the french ones. I have never even seen anyone have a deck of german playing cards. In fact I have never even seen such cards in a store anywhere.
