Sunday, September 6, 2009

.: Season's greeting :.


A dying art?

I'm curious as to how many of us still send out season's greeting cards; as in the physical ones. None of the electronic over the information superhighway e-greetings stuff.

As for me, my passion to do so has deteriorated. Family and friends make do with text, phone calls and the ever-so-popular e-greetings. *+ FB wall posts, twitter ...* Extremely discouraging when all of the above has become the practice for the past 10 or so years. Gone were the days where we will wait in anticipation for the next possible greeting card to land in the mailbox.

Reminiscing that feeling, I got myself stack loads of cards. Problem is, I don't know the addresses of my family and friends! Pathetic? YES! Thus, I'm trying to retrieve as much as I can. It is rather sad to call your relatives and ask for their address.

Me :: Hi Aunt. Can you give me your address? I wanna post you a card.
Aunt :: All these years, coming to my house and you don't know my address?
Me :: Uhh ... yeah ... sorry ... so uhh ... can I have it?

While I'm still in the spirit, I would like to share this newfound passion with my readers. If you would like me to send you an Eid card, kindly email your (a) name and (b) address to hajar.alwi@gmail.com by Sept. 11th. No matter where you are, whether you celebrate Eid or not, I will post it. :)

Note :: Any information that you provide will be kept confidential and I will be scrupulously discreet about it.

Let's just hope it doesn't get lost in the mail.

7.28am Malaysian Time

17 comments:

Sweet said...

Salam sis,

Very sweet...I still send out cards (thank-yous, birthday,sympathy...you name it). I love cards. But you know what? I never thought of sending Eid cards...or even Ramadan cards. Very good idea.

Ramadan Kareem

Hajar Alwi said...

Wa'alaikum'as'salam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu dearest Salma.

Ramadhan Mubarak to you and welcome!!! ^^

We don't have Ramadhan cards; meanwhile sending Eid cards is still sort of like a culture here. Ermm ... perhaps I can do a d-i-y Ramadhan card next year. Better make a mental note. :)

Irving said...

Ramadan Mubarak Dear Sister Hajar:

Ramadan Mubarak to you and your loved ones :) And FYI, Master of the Jinn will next year be translated and published in Malaysia, inshallah :)

Ya Haqq!

Najeeba said...

Assalamu alaikum,
A good idea, esp when people have almost forgotten about postal cards. From school, we used to give and receive cards. But once we reached college, i don't think many have seen postal greeting cards.
By the way, i wud like to know the meaning of your second name, Alwi. Is it your father's name? I ask it bcos, my father's name is SaidAlwi, the Malayalam (our mother tounge, the language spoken in a small part of south India) version for the Arabic name Saeed Ali. Is it same in Malasia also?
Wassalam.

Michelle Therese said...

Would you send me a Eid card or would that be too weird?

I love sending Christmas cards and Easter cards. I'm a cheap-wad though because I wait until after these holidays and then buy the next year's batch when all of the cards go on sale! That way I don't have to pay full price for the really nice cards haha!

As I type I have a pile of gorgeous Christmas cards upstairs that I bought on sale last year. They are super-fancy but I only paid a fraction of the price. If I'm feeling smart I start filling them out right about now. That way I can actually write little personal messages to people instead of hastily scribbling my signature.

So I'd better get to feeling smart and start working on those cards!

Sadly hardly anyone from back home ever responds with Christmas or Easter cards. But I figure that I might as well do my best to do something nice. What if something bad were to happen to a family member or friend? At least I won't be wracked with guilt that I never remembered them during the holidays!

:-) Sorry I haven't written you. Being pregnant with an infant... uuuugh. I have a package still waiting to be mailed to you! One of these days I'll waddle into the post office LOL!

Hajar Alwi said...

Irving :: Ramadhan Mubarak to you and your loved ones too brother Irving!

Seriously??? Alhamdulillah! I'll be waiting for it then! Please keep me updated. Thanks!

Najeeba :: Wa'alaikum'as'salam Sister Najeeba. ^^ I agree. Actually, I rarely see teenagers or kids these days sending out cards or letters.

Alwi is my dad's name. ^ I don't think it is common in Malaysia, since I have only known 1 person that has that name and the spelling is Alwee. As for the derivation, I believe it came from Ali. But for my dad's case, there was probably a typo error involved. :)

Coffee Catholic :: Michelle! I've already written yours, sealed it and just waiting to be posted!

And I'm a cheap-wad too! But, our cards never go on sale!

I used to stock my cards, so I don't have that sudden 'rush' to buy them. Plus writing personal messages takes a great deal of effort! Here I am cracking my head, trying to figure out what to write! *besides the conventional stuff*

Yeah, it's almost the same here. The again, there is nothing more blissful than sharing your joy with someone else. It might just make their day. :)

As for the writing ... Ohooo~ it's alright! Your condition is far more important! Just make sure you take extra care of yourself! Don't waddle too much ya! :P

Mrs. Abdussamad :: Wa'alaikum'as'salam and Ramadhan Mubarak to you too! Thanks for coming to my blog and yes, I do have readers from South Africa. I didn't publish your comment because you had your address there and, I figured it'd be better if I do not disclose it. :)

RedAnna said...

so sweet! i do send greeting cards too... it resemble the passion and spirits of the celebration :)

Hajar Zamzam Ismail said...

What a nice idea! I to miss the "old-fashioned" ritual of card sending. ;-)

Ms.Unique said...

So sweet of U Hajar ... yeah I'd like 2 receive one too Insha Allah if dats not a prob. I've sent U an e-mail already. Insha Allah I'll keep urs safely in my treasure collection. :D

Gone are those days, yeah we used to send eid cards too, but now it's the fast express ways (e-mail, FB, etc.) ...

Sarah said...

Assalamu Alaikum!

That's a fabulous idea! I used to send Eid cards when i was little, but that was ages ago. As I don't celebrate bdays or anything else really, it'd be nice to get back into this one inshallah.
But I don't know where I can get Eid cards here, and I can't be bothered to DIY them, so I'm gonna send out postcards with Eid messages on them instead, inshallah.

Thank you so much for this wonderful idea!

Sarah said...

Assalamu Alaikum!

That's a fabulous idea! I used to send Eid cards when i was little, but that was ages ago. As I don't celebrate bdays or anything else really, it'd be nice to get back into this one inshallah.
But I don't know where I can get Eid cards here, and I can't be bothered to DIY them, so I'm gonna send out postcards with Eid messages on them instead, inshallah.

Thank you so much for this wonderful idea!

Alisha said...

Yesterday I got a card by post and I was so excited, but it was just from the Islamic center. :-( Lately, I have been getting quite fed up of virtual wishes. I want to see it in my hands! Insha Allah planning on posting Eid cards but cant find any in the shops over here. Maybe I should make it. :-)

Mina said...

Oh i love sending cards, i wanna send you a Eid one plz send me your address to my email xXx

Jeanne-ming Brantingham said...

Oh yes, I will send you my address! I love paper and the art of opening something REAL. When I was growing up in Taiwan, ladies in churches all over America would send us USED greeting cards. My mother and I would sit around the table at night and cut off the backs or second page of the cards leaving only the actual art of the cover. We would then given them away and distribute them to kids in our orphanges or that we met on the street. Everyone loved the beautiful artwork. This is where I think I learned to love art and graphics, but I also loved imagining who the people who wrote messages and signed the cars might be.
A prize for me was cards with NO writing in them or one in PENCIL! I would keep them for myself.

Hajar Alwi said...

Redanna :: Indeed, it does! :)

Hajar Zamzam Ismail :: I must say, it has been fun. ^^

Ms.Unique :: No problem at all! I got your email. Terribly sorry for the delay in response.

Sometimes, certain things are lost because of the 'express' way ...

Sarah :: Wa'alaikum'as'salam ya Sarah! Welcome to the blog! Substituting with postcards is a swell idea! Hope you'll enjoy sending 'em out! :)

Alisha :: LoL~ I can totally relate to that! Please do have a go in making a couple of your own. ^

Mina :: Mina~~!!! Eek~ Ur email? I'll just send it to you via FB. :)

Jeanne-ming :: That's a very interesting outlook of things and I love what you did with your mum. Likewise, I'll be wondering of the exact thing.

Ack~ I should have read this comment more throughly before writing in your card! I could have written in pencil instead! Aih~~~ But it's alright. I have something else in store for you. Hope you'll like it. :)

Elizabeth Mahlou said...

I still send them out. I have friends and relatives who have not yet become addicted to computers, let alone text messaging. Oh, I might as well admit it: I still don't know how to text message. Moreover, the Russian New Year's cards are so beautiful, I cannot imagine them ever disappearing!

Hajar Alwi said...

LoL~ Well, some of my friends are still clueless about text messaging. :) I can't imagine our cards disappearing too!