Monthly Archives: April 2014
287.HOW DID PLAYING CARDS GET THEIR NAMES?
All kinds of claims have been made about the invention of playing cards. Some people think they originated with the Egyptians, others give the credit to the Arabs, or Hindus, or Chinese.
We do know that playing cards were first used for foretelling the future and were linked with religious symbols. Ancient Hindu cards, for example, had ten suits representing the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the Hindu god.
286.HOW DID MUSIC BEGIN?
Did you ever walk in a forest and suddenly come upon a little brook bubbling merrily along its path? Didn’t it sound like music? When the rain pitter-patters against a roof, or a bird sings heartily — aren’t these like music?
When man first began to notice his surroundings, there was a kind of music already here. And then when he wanted to express great joy, when he wanted to jump and shout and somehow express what he felt, he felt music in his being, perhaps before he was able to express it.
285.HOW DID FOOTBALL BEGIN?
From September to November, every Saturday afternoon is football time in the United States. In thousands of stadiums all over the country, millions of people gather to watch schools and colleges play. In fact, football is the country’s leading college sport.
Yet, the game as we know it, is less than 100 years old. The first game of football in the United States was played on November 6, 1869 at New Brunswick, New Jersey, between teams representing Princeton and Rutgers Universities. The game spread first among the older eastern universities, such as Yale, Harvard, and Columbia, and was later adopted by the whole nation.
