International holidays - World Postcard Day

March 25th is celebrated around the world as Postcard Day Its history goes back over 170 years The name itself comes from a combination of two words “open” and “letter”, that is, a type of correspondence without the use of an envelope On the outside there is an image, on the other there is space for a small letter, a stamp, the address of the recipient and the sender Most often, postcards are used for congratulations on significant events There are several versions of the appearance of the postcard According to one of them, the first card was printed by order of the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Henry Cole To wish all his numerous relatives a Merry Christmas, he placed an order for 1000 cards They depicted a large family at the table, with congratulatory words This event took place in 1840, and of the entire circulation, 12 copies have survived to this day The first full-fledged postcards appeared in Austria-Hungary in the second half of the 60s of the 19th century They were made in the form of ordinary cardboard pieces The items were intended for a short message and had appropriate space for a brand and address Later, in the active French and German armies, a tendency arose to independently paint postcards that did not have illustrations In a similar way, the military sought to somehow distract themselves and brighten up the sad, same-type war days by sending news to their relatives This idea, naturally, was picked up by business-minded businessmen, resulting in the appearance of illustrated postcards According to the Germans, the very first such card was created by a bookseller from Germany, while the French claim that it was an entrepreneur from Brittany Subsequently, the trend to produce printed products of this type was picked up by other states At the International Postal Congress in Paris in 1878, a world standard for card sizes was approved: 9 x 14 cm, a little later it was changed - 105 x 148 cm In our country, the printing of postcards in printing houses began in 1894 Initially, its reverse side was intended only for the address, but since 1904 the left side was reserved for a small message The height of popularity for greeting cards was between 1898 and 1918 A huge number of topics and plots were devoted to cards First of all, these are romantic messages, images of cities, folklore themes, portraits of creative personalities and scientists, as well as paintings by famous artists During the First World War, cartoons became popular that ridiculed the enemies of Russia Today, postcards are used much less frequently for their primary purpose This is due to the rapid development of modern means of communication Despite this, many people continue to send or give beautiful store-bought or handmade cards to their loved ones and friends Therefore, they have not yet lost their significance