Easter Cards
Easter cards are a big part of the Easter holidays, given to adults as well as children.
Both the ancient Chinese and the ancient Egyptians are the earliest examples of sending greeting cards, although they didn’t send Easter cards. For the Chinese it was a New Year tradition to send cards to people to wish them a prosperous future. Scrolls were used in ancient Egypt to convey personal messages, often nothing more than greetings and reminders of a friendship. Paper greeting cards, hand made and expensive, made their way to Europe by the 1400s.
New trends in printing made cards available to the masses by the mid 19th century. Holiday cards like Christmas and Easter cards first appeared around this time. By the late 19th century companies were mass producing and selling cards to the public.In 1910 an 18 year old by the name of Joyce Hall began selling postcards, and eventually created the Hallmark company that everyone now knows.
One group of Easter cards that became popular was the Easter post card. Post cards were cheaper than regular greeting cards because while greeting cards were folded with four sides, post cards were single cards with only two sides, generally printed on only one side. At first only a few people sent these postcards, but more and more people did it as time passed. These cards were simple, often monochrome and with the same design a big easter egg as well as printed only on one side so people could write a personal message on the other.
With time, both the design of the printed side of these simple Easter cards and the blank white side changed. It began to become popular in Germany for the white side to have half dedicated to the address and a space for a stamp. This meant the printed image side could become more elaborate and perfect since it didn’t have to make room for an address and stamp.
Germany mainly produced postcard Easter cards until WW1, and used monochrome photos of children colored in with Easter designs. People didn’t take well to the changes made in WW1 depictions of the Easter Bunny in uniform, sometimes carrying a gun. When the war ended the producers attempted to return to happier times, depicting children and bunnies with drawings rather than photos. But WW2, telephones and later email contributed to the demise of this once booming business.
Today Easter cards are mostly found on the shelves of grocery stores, gift shops, and online. It’s easier than ever to send Easter greetings.
