Moonlight: a lunar calendar in a deck of circular cards

The standard whist deck has 52 cards in 4 suits: this is said to be symbolic: one card for each week of the year, and a suit for each season. How true this is is a matter of debate, but one deck of cards that takes this literally is the set of circular cards patented by Lillie Zimmermann, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on July 10, 1928.

Lillie Zimmermann's game

As she put it in her patent, she wanted to make a game whose suits represent the four seasons of the year, with each suit made up of a group of month cards for each month of the season represented. In doing this she would make a game in which the month and year cards are comparable with a span of human life, and the playing of the card game is suggestive of “playing the game of life”.

The months are lunar, and each month has 4 quarters - New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, Last Quarter, 3 Moons per season, 48 cards in all.

The game she devised also had two interesting cards, the Moonshine card (injurious, and signed with a death's head) and a Moonlight card which was an independent highest trump card. She explicitly wanted to have a card that occurred by chance and ruined the best opportunity. The patent has a lot to say on the matter of Moonshine; we have moved the relevant patent claims to an endnote here should you want to read them all. The patent was filed midway through Prohibition, when moonshine alcohol was a real and present danger.

The game itself can be seen as a 48-card whist variant (the Moonlight and Moonshine cards notwithstanding), and the instructions from the patent for her game are given below here.

Moonlight Hanafuda

The 48 cards, 12 months of 4 cards each, can also be seen as a form of Hanafuda, and the four phases of each moon given to the different Hanafuda card assignments. Our assigning of the cards to Hanafuda is in a table given below here (based on Mr Yamamoto's Floral Hanafuda, whose patent was filed a few months later). Given her desire for the game to represent the round of the year, and the circle of life, we think this is a worthy secondary use of the cards.

Realising Moonlight

The patent gives an outline of the cards in the graphical section, but there are no pictures in the illustration. There are no other details given either, apart from a graphical account of what should be on the Moonshine card, and the generic account of the Moonlight card:

Diagrams for the cards from the patent

This left us with a problem if we wanted to make a Moonlight deck: how to realise the patent in a way that would match the illustrations of the time. Fortunately, we had at hand a copy of W.H. Gibson's 1896 Sharp Eyes: A Rambler's Calendar of 52 Weeks Among Insects, Birds, and Flowers, which provided us with an appropriate New England vista for each week of the year. The pictures were selected and edited, and we hand-coloured each to match the four seasons.

Green for Spring:

Spring cards

Maroon for Summer:

Summer cards

Amber for Fall/Autumn:

Fall/Autumn cards

And Lapis for Winter:

The two special cards we illustrated using some other of Gibson's sketches, colouring them a Tyrian purple. While Ms Zimmermann wanted a dire illustration on the Moonshine card, nothing in Gibson's output fitted, so we chose a picture of distant fireworks.

Trump cards

If you want to buy a Moonlight deck, and either play Moonlight or Moonlight Hanafuda, you can buy one printed on demand at Make Playing Cards here.

If you want to read her patent, it is available at Espace here.

So, who was Lillie Zimmerman?

Lillie Bertha Amelia Zimmerman (1902-1984) trained as a stenographer, then seems to have studied commerce at U-W Madison and GWU. She worked for most of her life as a legal or executive secretary. The 1940 census shows her occupation as Government Work, 1950 census has her listed as Secretary in Public Relations. At the time of the patent, she is listed as a stenographer, living at home with her parents. Apart from the patent, there is no record of her being active in design, but given the expense and effort involved she must have had some encouragement from her family in making the game more widely available.

---

Moonshine:

From the patent, verbatim:

• One object of the invention is to provide a very interesting game in which a penaliz­ing or death card is provided, preferably having no trick taking value, but effective if its player be out of suit, to negative or kill the effect of any card played concurrently, that is the leading card or any card played upon said leading card.

• Another object is to provide a game in which the penalizing card is representative of something to be profitably avoided in life, for instance, undesirable traits or habits, mentality-weakening and body-weakening drugs, drinks, etc. In the game, if this card play an injurious part, the players may reach the deduction that injury will result also in life if that represented by the card be permitted to interfere.

• A further aim is to provide a game in which a card is provided to increase the score of the holder after playing any hand and in which there is a possibility of killing the effect of such card by playing of the penal­izing or death card.

• A still further object is to provide a game in which moon symbols (letters, words, pictures, etc.) are utilized to denote the relative values of the suit cards, and in which the penalizing or death card represents “moonshine” (whiskey or the like). Hence, by analogy, the players may be impressed with the killing possibilities of “moonshine” both with regard to life and to efforts toward achievement of success.

Moonlight the Game

These are the details of the game from the census:

Rules for playing.

All cards are used in a four-hand game. For a three-hand game, only thirty-eight cards are used, leaving out of the deck the “new moon” cards. For a two-hand game, only twenty-six cards are used, leaving the “new moon” and “first quarter” cards out of the deck.

Order.— 1—Moonlight, high trump.

12—Full moons, next in rank— full moon of first month of season being highest, followed by full moon of second month of that sea­son and then third month.

12—Last quarters, next—follow­ing as above.

12—First quarters, next—follow­ing as above.

12—New moons, next—following as above.

1—Moonshine (death card) — see paragraph “Moon­shine”.

Deal.—Nine cards to each player, with three blinds for each, with two extra blinds to the center for highest bidder—deal to proceed three at a time, two center blinds to be dealt before other blinds of three to each player are dealt, blinds to be dealt last. Deal passes to left.

Purpose.—The purpose is to take the number of tricks or “moons” bid. Each trick or “moon” taken by the adversary or bidder scores as hereafter indicated.

Bidding.—Beginning at dealer’s left, each player bids in “moons” (tricks) until no one will bid any higher, highest bidder declar­ing trump after all others have passed.

Moon tricks score according to seasons— both for bidder and opponent—viz.,

Each “winter” trick scores______________ 9

Each “fall” trick scores________________ 10

Each “spring” trick scores______________ 11

Each “summer” trick scores____________ 12

Honor score for successful bidders_______ 20

June full moon trick____ Doubles total score.

There are nine tricks; but eight tricks only are scoring tricks, one being killed by “moonshine”.

The bidding opens with five winter moons (tricks) as the lowest bid, following by five fall moons, five spring moons, and five sum­mer moons; (meaning, of course, that five tricks must be taken to make the bid); then there is the bid of six moons for each season, seven moons for each season, and eight moons for each season—eight summer moons being the highest bid and eight tricks must be taken to make the bid.

Example: “A” bids five winter moons; “B” bids five summer moons; “C”, “A’s” partner, has a helping “winter” hand and bids six winter moons; while “D”, “B’s” partner, has no helping hand in “summer”, but has a very good “spring” hand, and bids six spring moons. On second round, all oth­ers pass, leaving “D” the highest bidder. “D” is successful in making his bid and scores six spring, or sixty-six for tricks, plus twenty for honors; total 86. Adversaries take two tricks, one the June full moon trick, scoring twenty-two for tricks, dou­bling because of June full moon trick, and making a total score of forty-four. Had the bidders taken the June full moon trick, they would have doubled, scoring 172, rather than 86. See paragraph “Scoring”.

If all players pass, cards are redealt by original dealer.

Moon blinds.—After bidding has been completed, all players take their blinds, bid­der receiving in addition two center blinds. Proper number of cards are then discarded (leaving nine in hand), discarding a full season if possible so that suit can be trumped when played.

“Moonshine” and “moonlight” cannot be discarded.

Leading and playing.—Successful bidder leads, followed by player at left, etc. Play­ers must follow suit; viz, if December full moon is led, players must follow suit, with December first or last quarter or new moon if they hold these; if not, they must follow with a “moon” of some other winter month—January or February ; if out of these, they may trump; throw off; of try “moonshine” which kills that trick. Such a “dead” trick counts for no one, but may easily keep the bidder from making his bid.

June full moon trick doubles the total score of the. player of partners capturing it; but this card can not be thrown in when out of suit for the purpose of having it double the score. In order to have it double the score, it must be played in the regular way as a suit card or trump. Here is where “moonshine” can do double duty— by killing the June full moon trick; however, one must be out of the suit led in order to be able to use “moonshine”; in this case, one must be out of summer suit in order to use “moonshine” on the June full moon trick.

Seasons.

Scoring per trick.

Winter—December, January, February________(lowest).

Fall—September,  October, November________(next higher).

Spring—March,    April, May_______________(second highest).

Summer—June, July, August _______________(highest).

Full moon of the first month of the season is highest, followed by second month of season, etc. If January full moon should be led and the adversary should be out of January cards but holds December full moon, he could play his December full moon and the trick would be his—unless it were trumped. The same is true of the quarter and new moons.

Moonlight.—“Moonlight” is highest trump in any suit in which the bid is made; but the holder must, of course, be out of the suit led, if other than trump, in order to trump the trick.

Moonshine.—“Death card”. The party holding “moonshine” may kill any trick of his adversary, provided he is out of the suit led; and he may be required to kill his own trick or that of his partner. If possible, it is well to kill the June full moon trick if it is expected to be taken by his adversary.

The party holding “moonshine” may lead it and call for a particular suit to be played upon that trick, thus bringing out certain undesirable cards and making his next lead certain so far as rank is concerned. The party playing “moonshine”, leads for the next trick.

Scoring.—After all cards have been played, tricks are counted and multiplied by the value of each trick, depending upon what trump has been named. If the bid is made, an honor of 20 points is given the success­ful bidder. Party taking June full moon trick doubles his total score. Adversaries score same points per trick as bidders, de­pending upon season made trump. See ex­ample under “Bidding”.

Set-back or penalty.—If bidder does not take the number of tricks bid, he is set back the amount of his bid; that is, if the bid were 7 spring moons, he would be set back 77, meaning that 77 points would be deduct­ed from his previous score.

Bidder is not set back the honor score, of course, this being added simply if the bid is made. June full moon trick means nothing to the bidder if he does not make his bid.

Game.—The game constitutes 365 points, and the player or players first obtaining that score win the game.

Partners.—As a four-hand game, this is a partnership game—two against two.

Progressive.—When a deal has been made by each player, winning partners progress.

Moonlight Hanafuda

Since there are 48 cards, 4 cards for 12 moons, we can adapt the cards to play any Hanafuda, according to this table (based on the allocation in Mr Yamamoto's California Hanafuda, whose patent was filed around the same time).

	Value in points
	New Moon	First Quarter	Full Moon	Last Quarter
January	1	5	10
February	1	5	10
March	1		10	20
April	1	5	10
May	1	5	10
June	1			20
July	1	5	10
August	1	5	10
September	1	5		20
October	1	5	10
November	1
December	1		10	20