Day for Dice

Today (December 4th) is International Dice day. Who knew?

Dice have been around for thousands of years. The oldest ones were unearthed in Shahr e Sukteh (the Burnt City) in southeast Iran as part of a 5,000 year old Backgammon set.

Originally made from the ankle bones of hoofed animals dice can be made of ivory, wood, or plastic, and most have six sides. Their sides are marked, and when dice are thrown they can land in multiple positions, so they are often used to generate random numbers in board games such as Snakes and Ladders or Monopoly. Sometimes they are used to decide a particular outcome, rather like tossing a coin. If you roll two six-sided dice, the most common number to come up is seven.

I have a set of wooden dice which were given me in a box with a pack of playing cards, but I’ve never used them. I understand they would be useful for gambling games such as Craps, but I prefer 500 or Canasta.

To say that something depends on the roll of the dice means it could have a good or bad outcome.

To dice with death is to do something very dangerous that could kill you.

I was surprised to learn that dice have their very own day – a time to honour them, if you wish.

If you would like unplanned advice
you could just roll a pair of dice