Sending festive messages in ancient times took time and often servants would deliver ‘flying letters’ from their masters to remote friends
2-MIN READ2-MINFran Luin BeijingPublished: 9:00am, 22 Apr 2026While people in modern times send new year greetings easily on social network apps, in ancient times it was a much more complicated ritual.
In China, the origin of delivering new year greeting cards can be traced back to the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).
During that time, people began making name cards, writing their name, age, hometown, official position, personal statement on long bamboo or wood sticks.
These sticks were called ming ci. The character ming means “name”, and ci is literally translated as “prick”. The same term is still used to refer to “name card” in today’s Japan.
The number of ming ci a person received during the Han dynasty was a symbol of that person’s social status. Some would even put a red bag outside their gate to receive the sticks, seeing it as the same as “receiving blessings”.
