Christmas cards in Ukraine

Today it is difficult to imagine the role of this small media used to send greetings and wishes of prosperity. Try to think when was the last time you received a postcard with greetings?

There are many versions of how first postcards came into being. According to one of them, the first greeting card was made in England in 1794 when some British artist sent his friend holiday greetings written on a piece of paper and on the other side he drew a picture of a family around a Christmas tree. According to another, the first Christmas card appeared in 1841 in a window of a bookstore in Scotland. Whichever of the versions is closer to the truth, the fact that the first greeting card was a Christmas card is undeniable.

In 1898 Russian Parish of Saint Eugenia issued a series of Christmas cards with watercolor paintings by famous artists of Saint Petersburg on them. These were not some ordinary cards but true art masterpieces, which represented such artists as Konstantin Makovsky, Alexander Benois, Ivan Bilibin, Leon Bakst, Nikolai Rerikh, and others. Among these artists Ilia Repin deserves special attention. He designed a card “Zaporozhets” (Cossack) – stylistically it resembled a holiday greeting card, but by the nature of the image it can be considered to be the first Ukrainian greeting card.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire post cards appeared as a mail unit in 1896 and quickly gained popularity. The period of 1898-1918 is called “golden age” of postcards in world’s deltiology.

It is practically impossible to chronologically replay all periods of emergence and development of Christmas card art in Ukraine. Thus, for example, there are no Ukrainian postcards preserved from the time between 1895 and the 1900s. However, we know for sure that the first artist to engage in card creation was Osyp Kurylas. In the early 1901 there was issued a series of postcards designed by him and published by Dzhulynsky. The series illustrated religious and folk songs.

Already in 1902 first postal Christmastide greeting cards designed by Ukrainian artists appeared in Western Ukraine.

In the early 20th century there were many Ukrainian artists who worked on creating greeting cards for holidays. They suggested interesting ideas about various artistic solutions. Among the classics the names of Olena Kulchytska, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, Yaroslav Petrak, Antin Manastyrsky, Osyp Kurylas, and Teodor Hrynevych are worth mentioning. There are also well-known postcards created by Kateryna Antonovych, Mykola Buovych, Yurii Vovk, Oksana Hlynska (Kichura), Ivan Izhakevych, Volodymyr Kadulin, Vasyl Kasian, Hnat Koltsuniak, Fotii Krasytsky, Myron Levytsky, Osyp Bokshai, and Vasyl Diadyniuk. There were also famous artists in exile, who created Christmas cards: Halyna Mazepa, Edward Kozak, Yakiv Hnizdovsky, Petro Andrusiv, and others.

Among famous Christmas cards by Osyp Kurylas we can find “Christmas,” “Christmas Eve,” and “Carol Singers.” In her greeting cards (“Christmas,” “Star of Bethlehem,” “Angels Singing,” “Merry Christmas – Be Happy,” “Carol: We ask Thee Lord,” and others), Olena Kulchytska used figures of angels and bells, in her ornaments we can see quite secession style that was very popular in the early 20th century. We should also note that this artist created her unique style of Christmas cards that distinguishes her from other artists.

Sviatoslav Hordynsky is famous for his series of postcards “Ukrainian Carols.” Each card in this series is an illustration of a particular carol that is complimented with bright original floral and animalistic motifs or geometric patterns.

Antin Manastyrsky used the image of a little Cossack boy in his postcards. This little boy glorifies the newborn Christ together with angels in a postcard “Glory to God in Heaven.” The artist also used texts of Ukrainian Christmas carols (“Lord Was Born”), or simply the image of little Jesus in the manger (“Happy Holidays”), or even stories from the Bible related to the birth of the Savior (“Three Kings,” “Christmas,” “Wise Men at the Cradle of Christ”).

The series of postal cards designed by Lviv-based graphic artist Myron Levytsky was especially popular. His cards “Christmas,” “Three Kings Bearing Gifts,” “Caroling in Zaporizhia,” and “Unleavened Bread in Traditional Ukrainian Home” are filled with Ukrainian spirit.

Series of Christmas cards “Carol Singers,” “Night before Christmas,” “Holiday Night” based on sketches by Ukrainian painter and graphic Yaroslav Pstarka was published in Lviv in 1912-13.

The Ukrainian postcards of the early 20th century mostly illustrated Christmas, but we sometimes also find New Year’s and Epiphany motifs.

In the early 20th century postal greeting cards were printed in several publishing houses, including Yakiv Orenshtain Publishing House, “Halytska Nakladnia” in Kolomyia, Lviv-based publishing houses “Soiuzny Bazar,” “Ukrainska Presa,” “Vydavnytsvo Artystychnykh Kartok Hryhoria Hanuliaka,” “Rusalka,” “Sokilsky Bazar,” “Presa,” “Zoria,” “Ukrainske Mystetsvo,” “Ukrainska Presa,” “Vidrodzhennia,” “Nova Khata,” “Tema,” bookstore “Ridna Shkola,” public organization “Committee for Assisting Widows and Orphans of the Clergy in Lviv.”

Christmas cards with insurrectional motifs were especially symbolic. During World War II handicraft production of Christmas cards was arranged. The cards were reproduced on typewriters or by stamping. Often underground artists painted a pattern or some other image of Christmas character with watercolor on paper and supplemented it with some greeting. Cards were made by Liubomyr Rykhtytsky and Stepan Holiash, Yurii Kostiv and Myron Levytsky. However, on terms of secrecy the names of the artists were not disclosed. Apart from Christmas motifs such cards had images of Ukrainian churches, Carpathian landscapes, and also Cossacks, princes, insurgents in the images of the Three Kings from the East or shepherds. Often we find a combination of Christmas themes and wartime motifs. This could be an image of the insurgents who came caroling to a village. Or it could also be, for example, a symbolic Christmas dinner in a military tent.

Ukrainian artists in exile, including the already mentioned Yakiv Hnizdovsky, Edward Kozak, Petro Andrusiv, Halyna Mazepa, and others also got engaged in creation of Ukrainian Christmas cards. In their cards, along with Christmas motifs, we find Ukrainian landscapes, memories of OUN-UPA fighting, about Princes and Cossacks days. Postcards did not only remind Ukrainians, who lived abroad, about their homeland. They were also used to raise money to support the struggle for the independence of Ukraine.

Revival of Christmas cards making took place since the late 1980s. Stories of Christ’s birth, images of churches, Bethlehem Star, didukh, carolers, family at Christmas dinner, Ukrainian historical characters, in short, everything that was banned in the Soviet period again appeared on postcards.

Today, you cannot always find a well-made Ukrainian Christmas card. Popular cards with bright motifs depicting Christmas tree decorations and even Nativity scenes with Jesus in manger are designed in a rather kitsch manner.

Ukrainian Christmas cards rich in motifs and diverse in themes are now being replaced by commercial counterparts, that represent rather Christmas traditions of foreign countries. Rare stylized designs of Ukrainian Christmas traditions in postcards with motifs of angels, didukh, nativity scene, family at Christmas dinner, despite the efforts of talented artists still remain at the margin.

That is why we must do everything possible to promote our Ukrainian postcards because for a long time it reflected actual events and carried a piece of Ukrainian culture not only in our land, but also outside our country.