Cetno i licho is a simple game of chance of ancient European provenance, traced back to the classical Roman game of par impar, odd or even. It is a Polish game with wider Slavic roots, reflected in related terms for the same guessing game across several Eastern European languages. One player conceals a number of small objects, historically white or black pawns, pebbles, or even lines scratched into ashes, in a closed hand, and the other player guesses whether the hidden count is even, cetno or cet, or odd, licho or liszka. A correct guess wins the round. Beyond its simple mechanics, the game carried a mystical dimension in traditional Slavic culture: players sometimes invoked the Sudice, the Slavic fate deities, when guessing, in a manner paralleling the Old English idea of wyrd, or fate. The word licho itself can also mean bad luck or devil in Polish, underscoring how closely this small guessing game was tied to folk fortune-telling and divination practice rather than being purely a children's pastime.
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1. Cetno i licho (Wikipedia)
Introduction
Cetno i licho is a simple game of chance, of ancient European provenance (see par-impar), where the players had to guess if the hidden objects were even (czetno, cetno, cet or čet) or odd (licho, see likho, or liszka) in number, with licho also meaning 'bad luck' or 'devil'.
Introduction
Cetno i licho is a simple game of chance, of ancient European provenance (see par-impar), where the players had to guess if the hidden objects were even (czetno, cetno, cet or čet) or odd (licho, see likho, or liszka) in number, with licho also meaning 'bad luck' or 'devil'. The counted objects could also be white or black pawns or lines drawn in ashes, and the game had mystical overtones of invoking the Sudice, the Slavic counterpart of the Fates (compare the Old English term wyrd).
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