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| Sunday, 15 December 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Greeting cards with an ethnic flavour From the traditional to the innovative.... The festive euphoria that pink tinge moods and muses and give a happy lilt to the atomosphere, is never quite complete without the seasonal greeting cards.
by Carol Aloysius The clue to its origins may lie in a single entry written in a diary over 150 years ago. The year was 1843 and the place London. Queen Victoria had recently ascended the throne and a museum had been named after her and her consort Prince Albert. Heading it was its first Director Sir Henry Cole. The latter was not only a distinguished personality in the metropolis, but was also well known for his hand written personalised greeting notes which he sent out to his wide circle of friends during the festive season. But that particular December he was busy. So he requested his friend and artist Mr. Morsley to design a card which he could send out to greet his friends instead of the usual personalised greeting note.
Little did Sir Henry or his friend dream that the card they had jointly conceived, would be the harbinger of Christmas for millions of households in the future. Nor did they foresee that it would also set a trend for greeting people on all sorts of occasions; from the festive season of Christmas and New Year, to birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and even to convey one's sympathies to another in times of bereavement. Sir Henry was so taken up with the new card that it is said that three years later, he lithographed a thousand copies of the original card, hand coloured them and put them up for sale at his shop at Bond Street in London. Although initially, these cards had few takers, they soon became popular with the development of colour printing and the introduction of the Penny Post, which gave a tremendous boost to their sales. By the 1860s almost every person in Britain was exchanging these greeting cards, now freely available at most shops across the country, during the festive season. Soon other artists began depicting their own designs on cards. These new cards generally depicted scenes traditionally associated with Christmas. Hence most of them were adorned with scenes of the Nativity, groups of carol singers singing under gas lights or with lanterns, candles, village churches, yule logs, bells, christmas trees, christmas stockings, and of course that genial old gentleman who never fails to turn up at Christmas, Santa Claus riding his reindeer drawn sleigh on a snow covered road at night. From what was once a very personalised greeting of a single individual to his friends over a century ago, today, the Christmas card has burgeoned into a huge commercial business that spans the globe. Thousands of firms across the world now specialising in printing Christmas cards and devote their entire year to planning and designing their cards so as to attract the most amount of customers. These cards come in different shapes, sizes and colours and their novelty never wanes for the simple reason that every year a new design and new format emerges from these publishing forms which have a very definite target market in mind. Sri Lanka is no exception. Over the years we have seen many interesting and unusual innovations by our own talented and creative artists who showcase their innovative creations in bookshops, supermarkets or in their own homes or special sales outlets. Their customers range from the selective to the not so selective, while the kind of cards they print largely depends on the kind of clientele to whom they cater. For example, we have eco-friendly cards and those depicting animals, birds, trees, which are mainly for nature loving customers.
Then we have cards that promote tourism and so depict the natural beauty of our island, again put out by either tourist related firms or patriotic individuals who want to attract more tourists into this country. One such individual is Tissa Hewavitharna,who until recently was domiciled in Bahrain. A pupil of one of Sri Lanka's foremost water colour artists, G.S. Fernando, Tissa, who has been sketching and painting from his school days at S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia, says he is a nature lover and a people lover. He recently held an exhibition of his work, most of which were in water colours. Inspired by the interest shown by visitors, and complying to a request by many of his friends, he decided to re-print these same paintings in miniature form for greeting cards for the forthcoming season.Predictably, his first edition of greeting cards features Lankan scenes. A typical scene from the North is of two saree clad women carrying pots of water on their heads and walking across a wide stretch of sand flanked by palmyrah trees. A snake charmer playing his flute as his pet snake sways rhythmically to the sound is another "popular tourist attraction", says the artist. The cards also feature; padda boats sailing down the Kelaniya river and the old town hall in the Pettah, with the bullock cart standing in front of it. Another experiment to use greeting cards to promote tourism in Sri Lanka is seen in the very attractive handmade cards put out by Kapila batikrafts. Mrs Daya Gunapala, still carrying a torch for her late husband J.A.Gunapala who was a pioneer in the art of batik handmade greeting cards says her company has never failed to put out a new and fascinating range of designs every year. This year's novel collection of greeting cards for Christmas includes several variations of the same scene; that of the three kings on their way to greet the new born Christ child and the infant Jesus and his Mother Mary. Painted in pleasing shades that range from soft muted brown, beige and blue to darker shades of red and orange, these cards have a distinctively Eastern or oriental touch, and make a refreshing change from the usual common-or-garden scenes we see on mass printed cards. As is the usual practice for the past many years, a number of charity organisations have also contributed to the large range of cards now available in the bookshops.
The biggest card Who made the biggest card that could have qualified for the Guiness book of records? Believe it or not it was Sri Lanka that produced such a card. when in the mid 90's, Reggie Candappa, the dynamic chairman of Grant McCann Erikson decided to print a card that included the creative efforts of his colleagues who worked in the various offices of the world's largest advertising agency. The final result was a six foot long card which carried images of Father Christmas wearing the national headgear typically representative of each country, which was probably the largest card ever to be printed. Christmas cards and other greeting cards have no doubt come to stay. Since the format of many of these cards change from year to year and carry messages of your loved ones, some of whom may not be with you the next year, they should be stored away in your collection of souvenirs and treasured as memories of the past. |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Funny, serious, colourfully innovative or comfortably traditional, the
cards have become an integral part of the season. With e-cards becoming
the innovative option of the web savvy and local cards acquiring an
'ethnic' flavour, we take a look at the origins of the Christmas Greeting
Card and the burgeoning local card industry ...
That his request was granted is evident by the single entry he made in
his diary which read: "Mr Hoarsely came and brought a design for a
Christmas card".
They are usually put out by individuals, or the Department of Wild Life
or eco- friendly firms such as Odel, for example.
