Season’s greetings: Eid cards remain a whisper of the past

Nevertheless, young people continue to purchase cards

PESHAWAR: Gone are the days when sending a card to friends and relatives was a part of the seasonal hullaballoo of Eid. The practice has gradually lost its sheen and become a thing of the past.

Over the years, customers have managed to tread the path from Eid cards to e-cards with relative ease. However, there are still a few people who are influenced by the whispers of the past and continue to send Eid cards to their loved ones.

Jostling for space

Ali Salman is among those who have kept the tradition alive. The 30-year-old is spotted at an Eid card stall in Lahori Gate. He is the lone customer at the shop in the evening – the peak hour for Eid shopping.



“I never miss out on the opportunity to send Eid cards to my friends,” he says, as he scrawls out a message on a card he has just bought from the stall. “Various modes of electronic communications have adversely affected the tradition of sending Eid cards.”

According to Salman, he finds it enormously satisfying to send Eid cards to his loved ones as sending a paper card is a lot more personal.

“E-cards only help us send message quickly and with relative ease,” Salman explains. “They don’t add to the spirit of the holiday.”

Remnants of a dwindling tradition

Jehanzaib Khan, 55, has been selling Eid cards in Peshawar for the last 30 years. He believes the tradition might have become the thing of the past but it has not completely disappeared.

“On the contrary, sending Eid cards remains a part of our culture,” he says. “I was among the few shopkeepers who started selling Eid cards when they were introduced in Peshawar.”

However, Jehanzaib is worried e-cards are undermining the tradition of sending Eid cards to friends and relatives.

“Mostly young boys and girls come to my shop to buy Eid cards,” he said. “Adults rarely buy Eid cards in Peshawar and all my customers are young people. A majority of them are girls.”

According to Jehanzaib, the tradition of sending Eid cards should be preserved by the educated sections of society.

“I don’t say this because I am affiliated with the business of selling Eid card,” he says. “I say this because it is a part of Pakistani culture.”

The dwindling tradition of sending Eid cards has also dealt a critical blow to those affiliated with the printing business.

Bilal Ahmad, a designer at a printing market in the city tells The Express Tribune he used to print thousands of Eid cards every year.

“Back then, there was a high demand for cards,” Ahmad says. “But now, things have changed and the custom has fallen out of favour.”

A walk down memory lane

It is widely believed the tradition of sending Eid cards in India originates from Europe. Christmas cards were repurposed for Eid and eventually gathered momentum.



In one of his articles, Ally Adnan, who writes on cultural traditions, said the culture of Eid cards emerged in the 1800s in India. However, the tradition became popular in the Subcontinent during the late nineteenth century.

A majority of these cards bore intricate designs and carried the message of love, friendship and peace.

In the late 1960s, a new trend surfaced where pictures of actors were printed on cards. According to Adnan, the images on these Eid cards were mostly lithographs prints, woodcuts or broadsides as sophisticated printing tools were not available. With time, advanced machinery was used to print card. As a result, many Eid cards were printed in bulk.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2016.