In the Mahabharata, the character of Yudhisthira gambles away his kingdom, his brothers, and his wife. The epic Kurukshetra war that follows a simple game of dice makes up the rest of the narrative.. While it’s difficult to pinpoint the date that Mahabharata was written, the most commonly held belief in India is that the events described in it happened about 5,000 years ago.
Dice are popular throughout the world. Judging from the fact that Sanskrit epics mention them and that they’ve shown up on various archaeological sites, they’ve been around practically as long as civilisation itself. While you may think of dice as only being a tool for gambling, they’re also essential to board games such as backgammon and Monopoly.
History of Dice Day
While dice can be found throughout the world, the oldest known set comes as a part of the Royal Game of Ur, which is the oldest existing board game and is approximately 4,400 years old. Ancient dice were not terribly different from modern forms and the concept of a six-faced cube with dots has been the world’s most popular pastime and gambling tool.
Tetrahedral dice and other shapes have also been around for quite awhile. Materials like ceramic, various metals, wood, and stone were used to create die. Brass dice have been around forever in Tamil Nadu and soldiers during the American War of Independence used to hammer them out of lead musket balls.
Regardless of what shape they come in, the most popular up until the 20th century was bone. These days, most dice are cast from plastic or synthetic resin. Particularly, the ones used in casinos are designed to ensure that they are truly random.
How to Celebrate Dice Day
We think that you can probably think of at least one example of a game involving dice the you’d like to play, so we won’t go into all of your possible options there. Invite over a few friends or gather up your family to play a dice game.
While we won’t encourage gambling, if that’s what it takes to get your friends to come to your Dice Day party, then we’ll just assume that the event exists in a sort of legal grey area and not say anything. However, we’ll still advise you to not go to the extent of wagering your family members, spouse, or kingdom if you do so, it’s just bad policy.
