Black Peter (card game)

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Black Peter
Popular European children's game
Schwarzer Peter-Museum im Ritterhaus (3).jpg
Black Peter cards from a 1920 J. W. Spear & Sons deck
OriginGermany
Alternative nameSchwarzer Peter
TypeShedding
Players3 or more
Age range6+
Cards31 or 37
DeckSpecial or standard packs
PlayClockwise
Playing time5-10 minutes
ChanceEasy
Related games
Old Maid, Vieux Garçon

Black Peter is the English name of the European game of Schwarzer Peter which originated in Germany where, along with Quartett, it is one of the most common children's card games. Old Maid is similar in concept to Black Peter and may have derived from it.

Name

The name Black Peter may be derived from the robber, Johann Peter Petri, a contemporary and accomplice of Johannes Bückler, the notorious German highwayman known as Schinderhannes. Petri also went under the nickname of "Old Black Peter" (der alte Schwarzpeter) or just "Black Peter" (Schwarzer Peter) and is supposed to have invented the game while in prison after 1811.[1][2] However, the origin of the game may be older.

Italian children play Asinello ("little donkey"). In Sweden the game is called Svarte Petter, in Finland Musta Pekka, in Denmark Sorteper and in the Netherlands Zwarte Piet. However, there it is the same name as Saint Nicholas' helper, a character similar to Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus in German-speaking regions.

It is known in Dutch as zwartepieten ("playing Black Pete") or pijkezotjagen ("Chasing the jack of spades"), in Polish as Piotruś ("Peter"), in Icelandic as Svarti Pétur ("Black Peter"), in Czech as Černý Petr ("Black Peter"), in Swedish as Svarte Petter ("Black Peter"), in Croatia as Crni Petar ("Black Peter")[3] or Krampus,[4] and in Greek as "mu(n)tzuris" (μου(ν)τζούρης, "smudged, smutted").[5]

Origin

The origin of Black Peter is unclear, although legend has it that it was invented in gaol by the notorious criminal, Black Peter, in 1811.[1] Its rules are recorded as early as 1821 in Das Neue Königliche L'Hombre,[6] considerably before those of the English game of Old Maid, a "newly invented game"[7][a] whose earliest rules appeared in 1884,[8] and the French game of Vieux Garçon ("Old Boy"), first recorded in 1853.[9] It is probably much older and once a simple gambling game in which the aim was to determine a loser who had to pay for the next round of drinks (cf. drinking game).[10] The game employs a pack of 32 French cards, Black Peter being, in the earliest rules, the Jack of Spades, the other black Jack having been removed.[b] The player who is last in and left holding Black Peter is the loser and may originally have had to pay for the next round.

1953 Dutch deck depicting Black Peter as a chimney sweep

Black Peter has long been a popular children's game and numerous proprietary packs have been produced aimed at the children's market. The earliest known of such bespoke cards appeared around 1840 in a trilingual format. Over the course of the years the images changed, reflecting the culture and social norms of the period.[11] In older packs, the Black Peter was typically a blackface caricature of a black man; other packs use a variety of different images such as chimney sweeps, black crows or black cats.

Rules

Sorteperspillerne ("Black Peter players") by Julius Exner, 1862, in the Danish National Art Gallery.

Special Black Peter packs usually consist of 31 or 37 cards: the 'Black Peter' and 15 or 18 pairs of cards.[12] Instead of proprietary playing cards, a pack of traditional French cards may be used with a Joker as the Black Peter, or one card removed to make a particular pair incomplete.

Any number of players can participate in the game, but at least two. The cards are shuffled and fully dealt out to the players. If players find pairs in their hands, they must discard those cards immediately.

Now the card drawing begins: the youngest child, or the child holding the most cards, or the player to the left of the dealer, draws a card from the player to the left and adds it to the hand. If that player can form a pair with this new card, it must be discarded. Then it is the turn of the player on the left to play in the same way. In this way, the game continues until all pairs are discarded and one player is left with Black Peter as the only card. This player is Black Peter and receives the agreed penalty, such as a black dot on the forehead, nose or cheek.[13]

Saying

The German saying "jemandem den Schwarzen Peter zuschieben" ("to pass the Black Peter to someone") means to pass the buck, to blame or to dump something inconvenient such as an unwelcome problem or responsibility on another person.[14]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Albeit called by a proprietary name, "Merry Matches", in the source.
  2. ^ In the similar French game of Vieux Garçon it is also the Jack of Spades that is the "Old Boy", while the Queen of Hearts is removed in the English equivalent leaving the Queen of Diamonds as "Old Maid".

References

  1. ^ a b "Grafen, Gold und Schwarzer Peter". Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2019. at veldenz.de
  2. ^ Probst, Ernst (2010), Der Schwarze Peter – Ein Räuber im Hunsrück und Odenwald (in German), GRIN Verlag, p. 17, ISBN 978-3-638-95142-5
  3. ^ "CRNI PETAR - DRUŠTVENE IGRE - PRAVILA IGRE - Lukin portal za djecu".
  4. ^ "Crni Petar ili Krampus".
  5. ^ Schwarzer Peter at pagat.com. Retrieved 18 Jun 2020.
  6. ^ Das Neue Königliche L'Hombre 1821, p. 298.
  7. ^ Bazaar Exchange and Mart 1883, p. 336.
  8. ^ Green 1884, p. 326.
  9. ^ Lasserre 1853, pp. 307/308.
  10. ^ David Parlett: Oxford Dictionary of Card Games. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 1992/96.
  11. ^ Schwarzer Peter – Nur ein Kinderspiel?, Exhibit of the Month, March 2018, Museums of the City of Nuremberg. museen.nuernberg.de. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  12. ^ Game Test for the Game: Black Peter.
  13. ^ Download Ravensburger Game Rules as PDF.
  14. ^ Wolfgang Fleischer: Phraseologie der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Bibliographisches Institut, 1982, p. 159.
    Rudolf Köster: Eigennamen Im Deutschen Wortschatz: Ein Lexikon. De Gruyter, 2003, p. 137.
    Dr. Wort: Mich laust der Affe: Neues aus der Welt der Redewendungen. rororo Verlag, 2012.

Literature

External links

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