Cartomancy - Hungarian playing cards

The Hungarian playing cards were very important in the childhood of many Hungarians.

Looking at the name of the cards, it is easy to associate it with Hungary, however, the playing cards were very popular in many countries of Central Europe, but the names are different in every country.

The deck which is known as “Magyar kártya” in Hungary differs from the standard deck, as it has only 32 cards, the suits are called: Acorns, Leaves (they sound like «zöld» which means «green), Hearts, and Bells (they sound like «tök» which means «pumpkin»). The symbols of the suits come from the German deck, which has been very popular since the beginning of the 15th century. The suits of the German deck have special meanings: hearts represent the priesthood, leaves represent citizens, acorns show peasantry, and bells represent noblemen. All of the playing cards have Roman numbers from VII to X and include under and upper Jacks, Kings, and Aces.

The four Kings represent anonymous heroes sitting on the horses. four Aces represent four seasons showing the well-known qualities of these seasons. The Jacks represent characters from the Swiss legend William Tell. Some figures on the cards don’t look similar to any heroes, so the choice to use these characters can’t be explained.

József Schneider is a creator of the Hungarian playing cards, he is known as a card painter and he made the first deck of playing cards in 1836 in Hungary during the revolution times against authorities in Europe. There is the possibility that he designed the Swiss freedom fighters because it was restricted to represent any Hungarian heroes, such things were censored.

This is one of my favorite playing cards with its impressive classic design.

As with all type of deck of cards, you can predict the future with this as well, the layout can be similar to the gypsy card.

You can name the cards as it pleases you, but you have to be careful, as I have mentioned here before, once you made up your mind what to call them, you have to stick to that.

It can be useful for new diviners, as it’s easy to understand the meaning of the cards. The result will be objective, not as chatty as the Gypsy or Lenormand card. We would rather rely on the meanings of the pages and the synonyms of the words and not to the symbols hidden on the card.