Forget an ace of hearts or a queen of spades, in Spain, it’s better to have a King of Cups or a Horse with gold..
"La baraja" Espanola, or the Spanish card deck, has been around since the 14 century, though many people here play with the French cards that Americans use for their beloved poker and such.
You’ll often see older men playing cards over coffee in the local cafes, but the younger set will be itching to tell your fortune regarding money, health and most importantly, love.
Espadas- swords-signify conflict while copas-goblets-represent emotions, beauty, pleasure etc, the gold of course represents the material world, and the bastos-scary looking wooden clubs-somehow symbolize spirituality.
I’m already confused. The teacher had Misae and I practice the future tense by asking each other questions like….will I be able to buy a new car next year? Or How many children will I have?
Later, our teacher Cristina treated us by reading our “fortunes” just like she did when she was a teen. For example, if she pulled a Caballo de oro-a man on a horse with a coin of gold in the corner of the card, it would mean that I’m a mature person, methodical, hardworking and responsible. But if she turned over a Caballo de bastos-same guy on the horse with the menacing club-it means I have no emotional stability, but will have fortune with money or my work…..Seems to me, any card could mean anything.
So I closed my eyes, and cut the deck with my left hand. While dealing some intricate pattern, Cristina would mutter things like, good, or ooh, no good. Finally, in the end, I had two kings, cups and one sword for conflict. Which basically means I have a 50/50 percent of being happy. Misae had a 75 percent chance….what a bummer.
But I do know this, I’m heading to the dollar store-yes they have those here-and picking up a deck to tell my friends’ fortunes….get ready.
No comments:
Post a Comment