They are also used to stay in touch with people you haven’t seen for a while. Since the purpose of the cards is to express your gratitude to relatives, friends, and colleagues who have helped you throughout the year, use that as your guide. The easy answer is “everyone you know,” but in practice, few people are so thorough.
The question of who to send new year’s cards to may be as vexing an issue today as it was back then. In other words - an average of 15 cards per person. The rise of electronic messaging services has naturally contributed to a continued fall in the number of nengajo sent each year, but it was estimated that Japan’s postal service delivered about two billion new year’s cards for 2020. The tradition has been preserved since then, becoming one of the most common new year’s celebrations throughout the history of Japan.
When Japan’s postal service followed Europe’s lead and created postcards in 1871, they were the perfect match for these greetings that required only the writing of “Happy New Year,” one’s name and an address. The Japanese custom of sending written new year’s greetings dates back to at least the Heian era (794-1185) when the nobility started to write such letters to people who lived too far away for the usual face-to-face new year greetings.
#Happy new year card how to
If you’re celebrating the new year in a traditional Japanese way and want to surprise your Japanese relatives, friends, and coworkers, here are a few tips on how to write the perfect nengajo! What are the origins of nengajo? Since they are nowadays written on postcards, they are also known as nenga-hagaki ( 年賀はがき ), or new year’s postcards. Similar to the Western custom of sending Christmas cards, in Japan, there is a tradition of sending new year’s greeting cards, called nengajo ( 年賀状 ). Keep it simple or get creative – all you need is a postcard, a pen and your address book.