How much do you know about the festival gift culture? Aifuyin takes you into the world of festival gifts and spy on it!
Postcards/greeting cards among festival gifts and creative gifts have always been the common language in the world. The oldest and most traditional form of blessing is paper postcards/greeting cards. Even today, with the development of modern communications, traditional postcard/greeting card methods are still common. A small card reflects a large amount of historical accumulation and emotional condensation. So what is different about postcard/greeting card culture around the world? Let’s learn about it with Ai Fuyin.
Japan: Pay attention to traditional etiquette and popular postcard/greeting card culture
Japanese people are very careful, and they also pay attention to traditional etiquette. Whenever the New Year is celebrated, they invent postcards/greeting cards to express their love and blessings to their loved ones and friends. This traditional custom is still full of charm. According to statistics, the circulation of postcards/greeting cards in Japan Post has exceeded 4 billion in recent years. Among them, it reached its peak in 2003, with a total of 4.5 billion cards issued, with an average of 38 per person.
With the increasing popularity of mobile phones, phones and the Internet, why can traditional greeting cards have such strong vitality in Japan? That's because in Japan, greeting friends from afar has been a custom since ancient times. In 1873, Japan Post issued its first New Year postcard/greeting card. After more than 100 years of cultural heritage, postcards/greeting cards have become a special way to communicate traditional New Year customs and emotionally. Every Japanese family will receive blessings from relatives and friends in the new year, ranging from thousands to dozens.
UK: Postcards/greeting cards are necessities of life
In the UK, these exquisite and exquisite cards are not embellishments of life, but necessities of life of the British people.
Nowadays, everyone receives a lot of Christmas postcards/greeting cards on Christmas, so Christmas postcards/greeting cards are part of Western Christmas culture, just like Christmas trees. In recent years, as the UK advocates a simple life, some families no longer buy Christmas trees, but Christmas postcard/greeting card culture cannot be lost. All of them put the Christmas postcards/greeting cards they received in the most conspicuous place in their homes, some on tables on fireplaces, some on walls, and some on ropes, just like flags flying by warships during grand welcoming ceremonies and festivals.
UK family relationships may not be as close as in China, so on particularly important days like Christmas, birthday, Mother's Day and Father's Day, postcards/greeting cards are particularly important. Some friends, even childhood friends, can maintain friendship through postcard/greeting cards even if they haven’t met for many years.
The British people have very rich inner feelings, but they are not good at expressing their feelings in words. They like to express their feelings in words. So in the UK, every town has many postcard/greeting card shops. Supermarkets, small shops, stationery stores, libraries, etc. have postcard/greeting card counters.
United States: Diversified postcard/greeting card culture
In the United States, there are many types of postcard/greeting cards, in addition to Christmas, Halloween, Easter, there are also thanks postcard/greeting cards and wedding postcards/greeting cards. Americans like to make homemade postcards/greeting cards, which is closely related to the individual and national culture of the United States. People like to treat their life photos as New Year's postcards/greeting cards and send them to relatives and friends during the New Year. On the one hand, they express their blessings, while at the same time passing on their happiness and happy life status to their friends.
The US government has also spared no effort to promote postcard/greeting card culture. Every year, the U.S. Postal Service organizes large postcards/greetings months. During the event, users log in to the relevant website to order postcards/greeting cards and then receive free postcards/greeting cards and postage envelopes from the U.S. Postal Service. The U.S. Postal Service wants users to put down their phones and tablets, spend a few minutes writing a postcard/greeting card with the pen in their hands, and replacing emails or text messages with postcards/greeting cards.
Through Aifuyin's analysis of postcard/greeting card cultures in various countries, how much do you know about these cultures?
