Do non-western cultures send holiday greeting cards (without gifts attached) to friends and family saying “Hello from our family to yours” or “Happy Holidays” etc. as appropriate to their cultural observances.
Just curious.
I don’t know about greeting cards but a few weeks ago I did see the Muslim equivalent to an Advent calender ( those things where you open a little door every day during advent). This was to countdown the days to the start of Ramadan.
We don’t have ‘Happy Holidays’ cards! We send Christmas cards in NZ and Australia. I thought it was interesting when I was in the States, to see cards and TV ads, saying ‘Happy Holidays’ - I worked it out pretty quickly, that it was due to so many who don’t celebrate Christmas. Although we have many folks who don’t celebrate Christmas, I think it is seen more as part of the dominant ‘kiwi culture’ that Christmas is why we have holidays, trees and presents everywhere. My family are athiest, so I guess technically we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas, but we always have. That is quite interesting too - especially as NZ and Australia are more secular than the States.
In Japan, they send Happy New Year postcards to friends, family and workmates, neighbours - takes them days!
In India, we send greeting cards on many occasions (with or without gifts), including birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, etc. So we have “Happy Birthday” or “Happy Diwali” or “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”, but no generic “Happy Holidays” cards as such.
The other difference I see between the US and India is that in the US, holiday season is usually Dec/Jan, while in India the holiday season is usually Apr/May when schools are off for summer.
New Year’s Cards are exchanged in Japan.
To avoid confusion I think it must be pointed out that when many non-US people talk about holidays, this means any vacation and not just those few days around Christmas.
Well, it’s also worth pointing out that Christmas isn’t the only holiday we have during that time of the year. There is also Thanksgiving (late November) and New Years, just to name the big ones. If you don’t talk to someone a lot, it might just be easier to send them a card that basically says “Happy NovDecAnuary!” than it would be to send them a card for each relevant holiday.
Oh, yes - that too. We also have New Years ofcourse, but not Thanksgiving - just haven’t moved to the more generic ‘Happy Holidays’ - Could take a while, if ever, as we still have a Santa who dresses in winter gear!
Muslims send ‘Id cards to each other.
That’s not it at all - it’s the fact that two biggies come within a week of each other. The greeting “Happy Holidays” has been around for decades - long before people were concerned about offending anyone.
Okay - but I don’t remember hearing it when I was a kid and travelled in the US.
But anyway, isn’t it a combination of both?
If ‘Happy Holidays’ is due to the number of celebrations all near each other, do Americans have ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ cards? Why is it necessary to combine Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year in the one card anyway?
It’s my observation that people in the U.S. send greeting cards once a year, often with a letter enclosed that informs the recipient of what the sender (and family) have been doing for the past year. These cards are usually timed to arrive just before Christmas. There are many different ways that people think about what sort of card to send:
-
Some people are Christians and always send “Merry Christmas” cards.
-
Some people are Christians, but they don’t consider it a big deal to say “Happy Holidays” instead, so they either always send “Happy Holidays” cards, so that no one is insulted, or they pick out the ones who might be insulted and send them “Happy Holidays” cards instead.
-
Some people are either not Christians or are only nomimally Christian and send “Merry Christmas” cars anyway.
-
Some people are either not Christians or are only nominally Christian and send “Happy Holidays” cards.
-
Some Jewish people send “Happy Hanukkah” cards, some send “Happy Holidays” cards, and some just don’t care and send “Merry Christmas” cards anyway.
Generally the term “the holidays” means Christmas and New Years, but sometimes it’s extended to Thanksgiving. Of course, the term “holiday” can sometimes mean any vacation, but when you’re asked, “What are you doing for the holidays?” and it’s close to the end of the year, the question means, “What are you doing for Christmas and New Years?” Incidentally, nearly everyone celebrates Christmas, regardless of their religious status. It’s generally recognized that many, perhaps most, people don’t treat it as a religious occasion. Even many Jews celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday. Some pretend that they’re actually celebrating Hanukkah, but others don’t wish to pretend that it’s really Hanukkah and thus just call it Christmas and say that it’s a secular holiday.
Well, the Hallmark company produces cards for everything. So I’m sure there are Thanksgiving cards out there somewhere. But there isn’t a tradition of Thanksgiving cards here.
I’ve only received foreign holiday cards from friends/family in Canada.
I do send out holiday cards to my friends, family, and also my customers. This includes a good portion of international mailings – a great deal of cards to Europe and Australia especially. I have never had anyone express anything but being happy (or maybe surprised) to receive a card from me. So if they don’t happen to send them, I think, it’s at least not unheard of.
WRT to the slight hijack, I send out generic “Happy Holidays” cards because:
-I send to a lot of people, not all of which are Christian, not all of which are even in this country, and being rather vocally irrelegious myself it just feels silly.
-I mail cards out at the beginning of December, a bit earlier than most, so the greeting is intended to encompass pretty much all of the month of December, which I tend to see as one big party going through New Year’s. We have several get togethers for different groups of friends and family members so it doesn’t really feel the same as a holiday like, say, Thanksgiving or Easter which only lasts one day for most people.
I have no problem with Merry Christmas myself, I celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday, I don’t care if Wal-Mart has a Merry Christmas sign up or anything. It’s just my preference to send out a bit less specific greeting cards. However I did just buy several mixed boxes of cards to donate to a VFW that’s sending them to Iraq - so soldiers can send cards home to their families for Christmas. Some of the cards are more generic, some have Bible verses. In general I think the message is pretty much the same.
In the USA the holiday season begins around the middle of November thru January 1st. It encompasses Thanksgiving, Christmas,and Hanukah. It is generally regarded as a time of good cheer and fellowship. Therefore, the generic greeting of Happy Holidays addresses the time of year rather than a specific holiday. Season’s Greetings is also used on greeting cards.
Dunno if you consider Jewish as “non-Western”, but Jews (even non-religious, nay atheist, ones like Yours Truly) very definitely send Happy New Year cards to each other around the Jewish New Year (September-ish); it’s very much a part and parcel of Holiday tradition, and in an ethnic, rather than religious (or at least not only religious) context.
Even more remarkably - the Japanese postal service works extremely hard to deliver every single one of them on New Year’s Day itself. It’s an enormous undertaking. NPR had a story about it a few years ago.
Don’t know about other Latin American/Caribbean nations but Dominicans most definitely do not send cards. I put it down to two factors - its very much an aural culture (or should that be ‘oral’?) and the DR postal system exists in theory only.
Add to the list: I have a number of pagan friends, so what we wind up wishing each other (tongue in cheek) is “Happy Hannukwanzaamastice!” Or, yes, more seriously, Season’s Greetings/Happy Holidays, which works out well enough for all of us.