Adult games in the secular salons of the 19th century, or what the aristocrats were having fun with

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Not only children love to play, but also older people. It has always been like this, it's just that adult and children's games differ in their content. In Russia, in the secular salons of the 19th century, people gathered not only to speculate about politics and economics, but also for entertainment. Read what a puzela is, how you could go to Paris to an exhibition without leaving the table, what innocent games were popular and why they were called that.

"Mail in a Hat" - Source of Puns and Flying Fingers at the Round Table

A game called "Mail in a Hat" was very fashionable. All those present received a piece of paper, on which they had to write their question. After that, the notes were folded into a hat and thoroughly mixed. Then the players took turns taking out the pieces of paper, but did not unfold it, but wrote the answer to the question on the other side. The processed notes were folded into another headdress, until the questions ended. Then the pieces of paper were taken out, questions and completely unexpected answers were read out loud, loud laughter was heard - this is how funny puns were very often encountered.

Another fun game was called Flying Birds. Participants sat around a round table and placed their index fingers on it. A driver was appointed, whose task was to list animate and inanimate objects. If he named an object that was able to fly, the players had to lift their finger off the table. When someone was mistaken, for example, a finger flew up at the word "vegetable garden", then it means a loss.

At the table: "To Paris for an exhibition", goose and lotto

The visitors of the salons liked the board games very much. There were many of them and they all consisted of a playing field, figures, and a cube with which you could add points or calculate how many steps a figure can be moved. It is believed that board games originated from the old Russian game "goose", that is, a goose, the meaning of which was to move to the finish line and at the same time collect cute birds along the way.

The board game often reflected travel ideas. For example, the famous "To Paris for the Exhibition" - the players had to go to the capital of France so as not to be late for the start of the exhibition of the achievements of the economy. And, of course, lotto. Brought in the 18th century from sunny Italy, the inhabitants of Russia immediately liked it. In many houses this was a game, family evenings were held with pleasant competition. The rules are simple and unchanged to this day. All players receive cards with numbers written on them, and the leader pulls out wooden barrels from the bag and names the numbers that need to be crossed out. The winner is the one who manages to score the horizontal row first. In the 19th century, lotto was incredibly popular, played for money, losing fortunes. Because of this, gambling was banned in public places.

Puzela have nothing to do with the belly

Today this game is called jigsaw puzzles. And in the 19th century, she bore the funny name "puzela". It was invented by the English cartographer Spilsbury, who managed to glue a geographical map on a wide board, then saw it into pieces and invite his kids to reassemble it from pieces. In Russia, jigsaw puzzles quickly gained popularity in salons. They were called either puzels (it sounds like this in German) or puzela (and this is in the French manner).

People concentratedly collected not only maps, but also landscapes, still lifes, and other beautiful pictures. The more difficult the pieces were cut, the more interesting the game. She helped develop artistic thinking, trained perseverance, and brought pleasure. Therefore, puzzles are collected by adults and children all over the world to this day.

Insidious cards: gambling addiction already existed

Many people liked card games, but in the 19th century they were considered obscene. They even bore such loud names as "molester", "educational brake" and "shame of living rooms". In some salons, cards were prohibited, while in others, on the contrary, they were welcomed. The books on secular etiquette that existed then contained advice for young people warning about the insidiousness of cards - they knew about gambling addiction even then. Still, cards were played by men and women, young and old, rich and poor.

Gambling card games were divided into those in which everything depends on the player and his ability to think quickly, and into random ones, which were akin to modern slot machines, that is, anyone could win. There are many examples in Russian literature related to maps. Take, for example, The Queen of Spades - Herman was a player. Arbenin from Lermontov's Masquerade too, as well as Gogolevsky Khlestakov from The Inspector General and many others. The most famous random games were shtoss and pharaoh.

Innocent games: Burners, forfeits and rhymes

There were so-called "innocent games". In French they were called petits-jeux and the exact translation was "little games". These were lively amusements, usually not too long. They came from the people, and acquired a certain polish for the salon. For example, my favorite game is burners. And the most popular were forfeits, which are still played today. Players had to put their forfeits in some sort of container, most often a hat. Then the presenter closed his eyes and pulled out a phantom belonging to a certain person. Before this, the potential master of the fantasy was given various, sometimes very funny tasks - jumping on one leg along the entire room, crowing, humming, and so on.

Not too mobile, but very innocent game - rhymes. The players sat in a circle. One of them took a handkerchief and suddenly threw it to the other. At the same time, it was necessary to pronounce some word. The one to whom the handkerchief was flying had to catch it and at the same time answer clearly in rhyme. So the handkerchief flew in a circle, collecting funny words. It was very interesting to think of a complex word, to which it was not easy to find a rhyme.

One of the amusements lovers for aristocrats was the last Russian emperor. Exactly Nicholas II had fun with his family.