Why do we send Easter cards?
The term Easter probably originates in the Anglo-Saxon name of the Teutonic Goddess of Spring and Fertility, Eastre. She was celebrated when, after long dark winters, day and night were again of the same length and life returned with the spring season. Many other ancient peoples also celebrated occasions of day and night being the same length. The Christian Easter festival, the Resurrection, combined various traditions of these pagan festivals but directly traces its own origin back to the Jewish Passover.
In the year 325 according to our time, the Roman Emperor Constantine laid down at the Council of Nicaea that Easter was to be celebrated each year on the first Sunday after the full moon following the 21st of March (when day and night are of equal length), i.e. between the 22nd of March and the 25th of April. Different methods which were applied to calculate the lunar orbit caused Easter to be celebrated on different days in the various places of the ancient world. Not before 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted by Great Britain and Ireland, was Easter celebrated at the same date in all Western Christian countries. The Eastern churches which do not accept the Gregorian calendar continue to celebrate the Resurrection on another day which has rarely coincided with the Western celebration (e.g. in 1865 and 1963). There have been attempts to find a fixed date for this movable festival for a long time.
Now as ever before, people of modern times have the desire to celebrate the beginning of the light season with close friends and relatives. As nowadays people often live far away from each other, special means of communication are required. The widely used Easter card has been among those media since the turn of the last century. Up until today, the most popular motifs for such cards have remained pagan symbols; especially the Easter bunny as a symbol of fertility and the egg as a symbol of new life.
Günter Garbrecht
Greeting Card Association of Germany
March 1999
The Valentine Card's
The historical background
Why do we send Easter cards?
Mother's Day
and Father's Day of Honour
Who invented the Christmas card?