By ABANG FARID ABANG TAHA
KUCHING: There were times when simple acts of sincerity expressed in traditional greeting cards really reflected what were in our hearts. The efforts of browsing and selecting different styles of greeting cards at retail shops and the time spent in composing the words and wishes on the cards were priceless.
In those good old (pre-internet) days, words were expressed in handwriting, not typing. When was the last time we spent some effort on traditional greeting cards for our relatives and/or friends?
In the modern era, technology had advanced for the development and convenience of man. But it also can kill what we used to value a lot such as the paper greeting cards which have been largely replaced by their digital counterparts.
Nowadays, a message is easily made and sent with just a simple click on social media and smartphone apps. It’s convenient and fast, but the tradition of sending and receiving greeting cards has its own attractiveness and intrinsic value due to the personal touch involved.
There are great selections of e-digital platforms for the making and transmitting of greeting cards with some offering custom designed cards to increase the varieties and options for customers.
Most millennials (people reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century) will never experience or know the meaning of the traditional greeting cards that hark back to those days when we used them to send short messages to some of our family members, relatives and friends who were far away.
All that was needed was the buying of a card, the writing of a simple message, and posting of the card itself at the nearest post box.
An auxiliary policeman, Mazlan Bonyamin, had a dose of nostalgia when he reminisced about the traditional greeting cards.
“To me they have sentimental value. It took some efforts to use them but as such they do show sincerity on the part of the sender,” he said.
“A written card shows the recipient something of the sender through the handwriting and expressed thought.
“Nowadays, digital greeting cards sent via social media and smartphone apps are not highly appreciated as they are easy to create, easy to send and one click away from delete.
“As for the traditional ones, you can frame them or keep in a file or box. You can read them many years later. They can bring back good or bitter sweet memories.”
A front office assistant Nurhadiatul Sukinah Jamali noted that youths are comfortable with e-digital greeting cards which they can custom-design or download from the Internet with very little personal effort involved.
“Traditional greeting cards do have sentimental value to the recipients. It is something we can touch and look at,” she said.
“When we give or send a traditional card to someone, that person can touch it. In that way it can help build and strengthen relationships between relatives and friends.
On what should be done with the almost obsolete traditional cards, she thought they should be preserved and continued to be used for special occasions.
“In the future, people would never learn about or know the sentimental value of the traditional cards. It would be nice to maintain them as part of our culture.
“What counts a lot is the effort of giving a greeting card to a loved one. That’s why you send them to special persons only,” she said.
As in many social things, the general consensus is that for something so personal, the fate of the traditional greeting cards depends on the personal choices of the sender and the recipient.
The sender has to have a certain profound feeling to buy, write and send a card.
The recipient on the other hand would have to be touched profoundly by the card in order to be motivated to send one or more in return.
