The dying art of Eid cards

CAIRO - 3 September 2017: As Eid Al-Adha celebrations have come upon us, friends and families start broadcasting their well wishes to their contact list in the form of Eid cards.

Thanks to technology, sending out Eid greeting cards has never been easier; on the other hand, they have lost their personalized touch.

Often, one would receive a greeting from someone that he or she finds visually appealing and then forwards the same card to a bunch of their contacts.

Sometimes, the same greetings are broadcasted to their friends and family. This leads to the loss of sentimental value associated with well wishes during Eid celebrations.


Eid card by Shabbar T. Corp. Bombay (courtesy of Dawn)

When greeting cards were actually hand picked and sent or given to people, more effort was put in the process of choosing the appropriate card and handwriting the well crafted greeting message.

Even if one were to send the same exact card with the same exact message to a group of people, it was still more customized because the handwriting and effort put into it adds to its sentimental value.

Before the digital age, families would spend hours taking pictures, picking designs, choosing their words wisely to send out the perfect Eid greetings to their loved ones.


Photo: Eid card by Hafiz Qamruddin & Sons, Lahore. (courtesy of Dawn)

We can see that each culture favored a specific design; whether it is the Kufi Arabic calligraphy or the Nashk script, colorful doodles or traditional mehni designs. All these factors allowed people to trigger their creativity while customizing their Eid cards.


Photo: Eid card in Urdo. (Pinterest)