Greetings cards originated in the ancient Egyptian and oriental cultures where nobility would inscribe greetings messages on scrolls to guests. It was a custom that was relevant to certain religious and cultural days of importance such as the Chinese new year. It was also customary for gifts to be exchanged and this could to commemorate a certain event or sentiment.

This practice was first recorded in Europe around the turn of the 1400s and the wood press printing method was used to press images and text onto pieces of paper to give to people at days of religious significance. This was a sign of affluence as the practice was restricted to an elite few by the lack of literacy and the expense involved in creating the wood carvings and manufacturing the ink.

As with many issues throughout the medieval periods the pursuit and recording of knowledge was the pursuit of the religious officials at the time. Greetings cards were known to be exchanged for religious purposes however not for the more contemporary uses of birthdays. The culture was not in mass practice until the early nineteenth century however certain changes took place in society that made this possible.

Greetings cards were expensive and hard to make as any image that was not individually hand drawn had to be carved into a wooden stamp, then dipped in ink and impressed on the greetings cards. There was also no point in sending greetings cards to an individual who could not read the inscribed message and with a large majority of the population illiterate the ensured the elite nature of greetings cards.

Three crucial things happened to change this which you due to their magnanimous nature you might not usually associate with something as trivial as greetings cards. The first was the introduction of the printing press in the late 15th century which meant that not only was printed material more readily available, it was cheaper and could be mass produced and distributed. The printing press is seen as one of the most important inventions of all time.

The second event was the formation of the establishing merchant or middle classes, who were gradually achieving economic status which allowed them to become educated. This meant that the growing demand for printed material which included greetings cards could be distributed much to the dismay of the scholastic system who traditional controlled knowledge. This period was known as the enlightenment and went on until the early parts of the nineteenth century.

The third factor in the spread of the culture of greetings cards was the industrial revolution which combined with the technology and sociological evolution meant that the mass distribution and commercialisation of greetings cards was made possible. During the late nineteenth century the industry of greetings cards became an integral part of society and remains so to this day with technological advancements creating new ways of sharing greetings cards, such a via email.