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.

News About Easter

Easter Island statues have full bodies and contain ancient petroglyphs 15 May 2012 at 6:12pm
Click image to see more photos. (EISP/EISP) Explorers have long known there was more to the 887 statues on Easter Island?some 2,000 miles west of Chile?than just the statue heads made famous in photographs. When most people think of the renowned monolithic statues, they think of the heads only. But in October 2011, the Easter [...]

Inside Easter Island's Secrets 16 May 2012 at 9:09am
The first methodical investigation of the statues at Rapa Nui, which many think of as simple heads, reveals the complete figures buried over centuries by natural forces.

Academic All-Star: Eisenhower senior Jason Easter 16 May 2012 at 10:30pm
Eisenhower High School senior Jason Easter will major in aeronautical engineering. Next year he will go to the University of Washington.

Local communities host Easter activities 17 May 2012 at 11:47pm
Easter is just around the corner and local communities are preparing for a visit from the Easter Bunny.

Easter already carrying presidential load 11 May 2012 at 6:23am
URBANA ? When University of Illinois students walk across the stage Sunday to receive their diplomas, President Michael Hogan will not be there to shake their hands. Instead, Robert Easter, who is the president designate, will congratulate them. Easter also attended UI-Chicago commencement ceremonies and will be at the UI-Springfield commencement this Saturday. read more

Eastern Connecticut Easter Seals group honors civic leader 17 May 2012 at 8:01pm
Easter Seals Capital Region & Eastern Connecticut presented its Civic Leadership award to Jerry G. Olson, primary trustee of Olde Mistick Village, at the annual Walk With Me Kick-Off Celebration Wednesday at Go Fish in Mystic.

The Easter Bunny arrives at Town East Mall 17 May 2012 at 11:42pm
The Easter Bunny is hopping into the area to visit with children at Town East Mall. He arrives on Tuesday, March 13 and will be welcoming visitors until Saturday, April 7 when he leaves to deliver eggs around the world.

Religious leaders say on Easter that faith and politics are inseparable 17 May 2012 at 11:24pm
Influential pastor Rick Warren defended the place of religion in politics during a television interview that aired Sunday morning, arguing that ?faith is simply a world view.? Warren made his statements only a few weeks after a Pew Research Center survey showed 38 percent of Americans -- an all-time high -- believe political leaders spend too much time talking about religion. A majority, 54 ...

Stormont to mark Easter Rising 14 May 2012 at 8:14am
The NI Assembly Commission announces plans to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising.

Retail Sales in U.S. Cool on Early Easter and Seasonable Weather 15 May 2012 at 5:37am
Retail sales in the U.S. rose in April at the slowest pace of the year, showing unseasonably mild weather and pre-Easter shopping may have pulled consumers to stores the prior month.