Valentine Day Cards
Expression of love is as archaic as Adam and Eve (The first human couple). Remember that it was their sentiments, brimming with ardor and affection, that had forced them to leave the garden of heavens. And by the time Adam and Eve descended on the earth, emotion of love had irrigated every vein of their bodies. Thus, right from first inhabiting couple of the earth, love has been an intrinsic part of worldly affairs.
Love is creation; love is progression; love is seed to germinate generations in the cosmos; therefore, it is no surprise that our whole existence centers on the execution of love in different spheres of life.
Aeons, between the age of Adam & Eve and latter-day humans, have passed transmuting mankind in to more articulate and astute creature. First of all our predecessors learnt to use sounds and afterwards devised writing art to make the expressing journey more convenient. Gradually, words, with other affairs of life, for love and romantic emotions started appearing. And words afforded the romantic sentiments a new face. Skewed and wavy lines on paper were now a systematic base of language, which produced genres of writing i.e. poetry and prose. And these words nourished the style of love expressions. Today words are an important tool to pierce the heart of your sweetie and make a dwelling there.
In order to serve your emotions through words, valentine greeting cards are the best dish available to fill your valentine's heart with fervor of fondness. Greeting card verses tattoo your valentine's heart with hue of true emotions of love and care possessed by you for him/her.
History of Valentine's Day cards:
The fancy, funky greeting cards of todays are an upshot of a journey traversed through centuries. Legends have it that St. valentine himself, after whose name the love-gala is rejoiced over, lettered prototype valentine greeting.
When he was in jail serving a conviction ordered by Emperor Claudius, Cupid struck him. Beauty of a blind girl (who was, as per the legends, jailor's daughter) coiled St Valentine in its thrall. Through prayers of Christian faith, he healed the blindness of the girl. It is said that on 14th of Feb. in 270AD,before going for his decapitation he wrote a letter to his beloved with the words reading "From your Valentine" as signature.
After that, a billet doux written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his spouse is reckoned the second such letter in history. He wrote this letter from Tower of London ,where he was confined in 1415. The letter can be viewed today at the British Library in London, England.
Years after Charles's letter, king Henry 5th is said to have hired a gentleman named John Lydgate—who was a writer—to pen a valentine missive for Catherine of Valois.
There is a reference in the pages of history that in ancient France that people with knack for writing poetry were in great demand to write romantic verses. Fellows who were unable to express their romantic feelings through the act of writing, availed services of such writers for successful courtships.
In 1669, a booklet called "writer" was published in France to help lovers their sentiments. This book had huge collection of verses for latent emotions of young lovers to splash on the paper. They could easily copy the verses on gilt-edged paper and impress their valentines. Traveling on the saddle of popularity, this book reached England and after conquering innumerable English hearts, landed in America through colonists.
Long before the arrival of printed cards, people used to exchange handmade Valentine's Day greeting cards. They were shaped out of a combination of hued papers and different type of drawings.
Some patterns of that handmade collage are:
1) Acrostic cards: The name of special one's would appear in the first line of verses in such cards.
2) Cutout cards: As the name suggests, giving several cuts to a folded paper made these sorts of cards. The cuts were meant to produce an effect similar to laces. Small, sharp scissors were convenient tools to carve out designs for such cards.
3) Pin prick cards: Pins were used to give a design imitating lace for these variety of cards.
4) Theorem or Poonah Cards: These cards used stenciled illustrations to represent a word. For instance, picture of eyes would be used in place of the word eyes.
5) Puzzle Purse cards: These cards had verses in folded papers, and each verse needed to be read in a certain order to enhance the charm of the greeting.
6) Fraktur Cards: These cards had cultural trappings of Germany. Letters of these cards aped the illuminated manuscripts of middle ages.
The time stretch of 1800s saw a radical change in the world of valentine cards. Advanced chromolithography printing system replaced the old style of printing. So embossed embellishments—such as flowers, feathers, fringes, and lockets of hair-- were winning hearts of millions. Cheap paper and postage facility too contributed to a great deal as regards the popularity of printed Valentine's Day cards.
It was 1847,when a new star shone on the horizon of greeting cards. And that was, Esther Allen Howland, born in the year of 1828,at Massachusetts, USA. What was once just a curious attempt to designing cards later got converted in to $100,000 annual business.
Esther Howland translated her fantasies and imageries into a cheerful style to express romance through greeting cards. People started to identify with her description of love through delicate pictures of lovebirds, endless knots of love, wreaths, and flowers baskets.
Multiple layers, Die-cuts, Baxter prints, and Hinged or lift-up flaps were forte of Howland's creative mind. She had composed a booklet containing 131 types of verses and distributed to dealers. This book was aidful in the sense, that it provided an alternative. If any costumer didn't like the pre-printed verses, they could choose any verse from the book and get them incorporated in a valentine card. The artistic flair of this lady has left an indelible mark on the development of greeting cards through passed several decades.
Electrifying Emotions:
The advent of the computer and Internet age has given the practice of valentine's card reciprocation, a new dimension. In case, if you are pressed for time to visit greeting card stores, worry you not. An array of sites, created by major greeting card companies, is just a click away. Uncountable verses, innumerable designs, and umpteen romantic quotes, you name it and they are available at the web space to choose from. The e-cards have a great trait to measure long distances in just few second. If your sweetheart is miles away from you, you can reach him/her your feeling in minutes through e-cards. If you want to express you sentiments in more intimate way these sites have facility for e-hugs and e- kisses. Moreover, these websites are a nice way to learn about dos and don'ts of Valentine's Day. These tips can prove heavily instrumental in failure and success of relationship with your valentine.
So flexibility of Internet allows you to perform two jobs simultaneously: on the one hand you get your message delivered swiftly and on the other you find tips to cement your rapport.
Some exhortations on when to send a Valentine's Day card:
Valentine's Day greeting cards are a great vehicle to convey your emotions in order to start or sustain a relationship. Here are some points regarding when Valentine's Day greeting cards work better:
1) If you want to reveal your love: Valentine's cards are a nice idea to express your sentiments, when your sweetie doesn't know what you feel for him/her. Often Valentine card is first rung to the apex of a relationship. So, if anyone is in your heart, tell him/her through power of Valentine cards.
2) If you want to please your truelove: If, for some reason or the other, your honey is avoiding you, eulogizing verses of valentine cards can help redress his/her grumpy mood.
3) To mark first meeting at the date: To re-experience the feelings of pounding hearts, trembling fingers, and shivering lips pertaining to first date, greetings card is a nice recipe. Reminiscence of that first tryst will replenish your relationship with new excitement.
4) At the twilight of life: Exchanging a Valentine's Day card can provide a new leash of freshness at the twilight of life. Nostalgic moments of past can rekindle the languishing desire to live at this stage.
Style of verses: Nowadays, style of greeting verses is less intricate and more homespun. It is a discerning effort on part of greeting card companies to follow the expressions of common guys, who use the cards most. Highly poetic composition seem surreal to them; they fail to relate to this type of intellect. So, they want writing pieces that can justify and correspond their understanding.
To conclude, Valentine's Day greeting cards, through centuries, have successfully fulfilled their purpose of creating and commemorating a relationship, and its vital role in relationships is not going to fade even in coming several centuries.
