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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 the 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 (Figure 1). In fact, this is the origin of New Year greeting cards. In China, the idea was to 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, with the tradition renewed each new 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.<ref>For more on the earliest forms of greeting cards, see: Dasgupta, A. K. (2014). <i>Arts, crafts and traditional industries</i>. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, pg. 6. </ref>

====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 love letter and card to her fiancé (Figure 2). 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 and sometimes they had small drawings as part of the card.<ref>For more on the first known Valentine's Day love letter and card, see: Thiébaux, M. (Ed.). (1994). <i>The Writings of medieval women: an anthology (2nd ed)</i>. New York: Garland Pub. </ref>