| The origins of the celebration of Christmas are in ancient pre-Christian worship: these days, the date of birth of the “invincible Sun” – The Iran god Miter was celebrated in the ancient East and in the Roman Empire. The Christian feast united with the winter agricultural feast in the name of the Sun and close revival of nature. In the Roman Catholic churches from the 18th century, small recesses, in which stages from the legend about the birth of Christ were represented, using figures made of wood, porcelain, painted clay, used to be set. By the passing of time, mangers were set not only in churches but also in houses before Christmas. They stand for several weeks till the feast of the candles on the 2nd of February. Residential dignities – models in glazed boxes representing the main sails, the Infant Jesus and near the Holy mother, Joseph, angels, who have come to worship the shepherd and animals, an ox and a donkey are set in mangers, have become very popular. Earlier evangelic stages in catholic countries took place by the church members, later these stages moved onto squares. Christmas feasts were marked by the combination of church and public customs. The custom to visit houses by children and young people in masks and animal skins by singing and with good wishes similar to carol singing is well known in catholic countries. In reply they get gifts: sausages, fried chestnuts, fruits, eggs, pastries and sweets. This custom was condemned by the church authorities several times and it was not agreed with strict rules. Gradually youngsters with well wishes started to visit only relatives, neighbors and close friends.
The Greeting Card (a primitive open letter): A special type of post card for open letters (without an envelope). The collection of post cards is called Deltiology. Most of the greeting cards are sold around the Christmas season.
The front side of the greeting card has some sort of a full-scale (occupying the whole surface) figure, the reverse side is meant for writing the messages and the address of the addresser and the addressee, and also for pasting a postal stamp. Often the stamp is printed directly on the greeting card; the postal mail includes the price of the former on sale. The post card may also be non-postal. In this case it neither has a stamp nor did a place provide for an address, it’s just a greeting card made out of thick paper or cardboard the size of a normal letter.
The first postal card was released in 1869 in Austria-Hungary. It is considered that the idea to furnish the card with illustrations was born during the time of the French - Russian war in 1870-1871 in amongst the fighting armies of France and Germany.
Some of the soldiers started supporting post cards sent home with drawings. This idea was effectively assimilated by businessmen. As per the French version the greeting post card was released by a bookseller named Leon Bernardo from Brittany, as per the German by bookseller A. Schwartz from Oldenburg.
One way or another, the year of the invention of the greeting card was 1870. The beginning proved to be successful and the idea of the post card spread to other countries. In Russia the post card saw light in 1895, and the first soviet post cards date back to November 1917. In 1878 during the International Postal Congress in Paris, an international standard for greeting cards was accepted: 9 x 14 cm, which was changed in 1925 to the other: 10.5 x 14.8. Originally its reverse side was meant for addresses (a specific place for a letter was not foreseen), from 1904 its left half was assigned for a short letter.
Contemporary illustrated greeting cards are divided into artistic (duplicate and original) and documentary (photo cards). Greeting cards released by postal agencies, normally, have a printed label of the postal payment and are called stamped postal cards and on artistic unstamped greeting cards, a specific place is assigned for the stamp. Usually, greeting cards are used for holidays like Christmas, congratulating birthdays or other commemorative dates. |
Christmas is just around the corner and sales of Christmas greeting cards are booming across America and in most countries. While it's nice to buy the cards with cleverly designed messages, vast majority of Americans prefer to write their own message on a card, or at least add one to it.
