Where Did the Tradition Of Greeting Cards Develop

Whether its the holidays or occasions that we want to celebrate, greeting cards are fixed in Western cultures today and giving them to friends or acquaintances seems second nature to us. How did this tradition develop? As one might expect, greeting cards developed from more ancient roots. Additionally, the use and intention of greeting cards has also changed, where cultural interests and changes applied in time have developed our current traditions and those used around the world.

Origin of Greeting Cards

Greeting cards have their origin perhaps soon after the invention of writing. Already in ancient Sumerian culture in hte 3rd millennium BCE, clay tablets have been found with greetings that maybe have been sent as a card of well wishing. In Bronze Age China and Egypt, these societies show evidence of personalized messages sent to others celebrating the New Year or providing well wishes at the end of the year. In fact, this is the origin of New Year greeting cards. In China, the idea was o send messages to ward off the evil spirit Nian, who would terrorize people at the end of the year. Cards would be given at the beginning of the year and the cards were intended to have luck or power to help ward off the evil spirit for the entire year. The presence of evil spirits and the wishing away of evil in the Near Year are still part of celebrations of the Chinese New Year. In Egypt, among the earliest personalized greeting cards have been found, where named individuals wishing well to other named individuals has been found. The idea was to send personalized greetings in the New Year, in a way similar to Chinese New Year culture, but rather than warding evil spirits the idea was to wish someone well and celebrate the beginning of the new life cycle that would begin in the New Year. For Egypt, the calendar would begin with the rising of the star Sothis, or our star Sirius, sometime around August/September. For Chinese traditions, New Year was generally around January/February, where the tradition follows a lunar calendar.

Around 100 CE, paper was invented by the Chinese. The use of personalized messages became also popular in the new meidum as the use of paper spread to other cultures along the Silk Road and utilising sea routes. In the Medieval period, in Europe, New Year also became a time for people to reflect and think about the year ahead. Worries about the harvest or coming year led people to write well wishes to each other. Sometimes this would be done in personalized wood carvings or what became common was using paper. By the 14th century in German states, personal greeting cards more similar to today had developed, which resemble our handmade cards that were written with short wishes for good fortune in the New Year. In the 14th century, most greeting cards were the privilege of the upper class, as handmade cards were generally expensive.

Holidays and Greeting Cards

By the mid-15th century, greeting cards had moved from mostly a New Year formality to something being exchanged in other periods. One of the first periods used outside of New Year was in celebration of St. Valentine. In fact, Margery Brews, in 1477, is considered to have composed the oldest known Valentine's Day card to her fiancé. Despite this change, greeting cards were still considered too expensive and difficult for most people to have. However, greeting cards continued to be made, although the volume was generally low.

The major change occurred in the late mid-19th century, when at that time innovations in mechanized printing and mass production, along with better postal routes and cheaper postal rates, made sending greeting cards affordable. It was at this time that greeting cards became popular for other occasions. One of the first was for Christmas, when Sir Henry Cole, in 1847, hired the designer John Calcott Horsley to create the first personalized Christmas cards. These cards were then posted by Cole to his friends as a greeting for the Christmas period. By the 1860s, several companies began to develop mass-produced cards, with these cards mostly focusing on Christmas and New Years. Valentine's Day was also popular for those sending well wishes to their loved ones. With mass production and lower prices, greeting cards soon became popular as part of the wider Christmas and holiday traditions. Companies saw this development and invested heavily by professionalizing the produce through the hiring of expert designers and artists such as Kate Greenaway to help create what would later become classic designs, with the Northern Ireland company Marcus Ward & Co becoming one of the first leaders in greeting cards. These designs were used for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and also the company tried to extend the market by creating generic cards that could be used for other occasions such as birthdays. Soon greeting cards began to be extended to other holidays in the 1870s and later, as low prices and easy reproduction made them popular as part of gifts sent to others.

Development and Meaning Today

Greeting cards did not evolve a lot more during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The wellknown company Hallmark Cards Inc. was founded in 1910 in Kansas City. The company initially started out by selling postcards but by 1912 began to focus on writing letters and cards. In 1917, the company even developed what would become gift wrapping paper. In the US, Hallmark soon began to dominate the market by the 1920s. With the introduction of better color printing and color lithography in the 1930s, greeting cards experienced a renewal of even greater interest by the public. This renewal of interest led to more experimentation with how to use cards, such as the development of humorous cards that went beyond simply wishing someone well or giving affection to someone.