Freaky Victorian Easter Cards II

Victorian holiday cards, whether Christmas or Easter, can be counted on to be bizarre or sentimental--and for the most part, secular. While frogs (for some inexplicable reason) in Christmas cards are experiencing mishaps and doing foolish things, in Easter cards, not surprisingly, rabbits and chicks are featured, for better or worse.

     A very large, well-dressed rabbit proposes to an oddly proportioned girl. Did she accept? 

 A hen with color-coordinated dress and umbrella chases away a bunny. Was he trying to take away her eggs?

                                  Bang! In this German card, a chick blasts away at a rabbit.

There's not much joy for this female chick in a guardhouse with broken eggs spilled on the ground. The chick soldier is wearing a Pickelhaube, a German style helmet from that period. Hmm.

                                     Rabbits smoking flowers in egg bowls. *cough*

    Easter bunnies drop their egg basket when bees and mud-slinging frogs attack them.

                             Cherubic babies go at Easter eggs with hammers. Take that!

 Storks don't bring babies, bunnies do, in eggshells. No message on the sign. We, too, are left speechless.

                              

  An injured Jewish chick hobbles to his egg-home. Attacked by Gentiles?

 Very bizarre: Injured rabbits pushing a severely wounded one come across a small one slumped on a road marker. Were they shot by gun-toting chicks?

'Want to see more vintage cards? Check out this BBC article, "The Odd World of Victorian Easter Cards":"The Odd World of Victorian Easter Cards"

Happy Easter! 'Hope it's not too weird. 

Weird Victorian New Year's Cards

 As we reach the end of 2021, most of us will have to admit that the past two years have been hard to navigate sometimes. Now, on the eve of 2022, it behooves us to put aside the onerous politics, weather disasters, and pandemic worries afflicting us today and consider some of the passing strange new year's greetings that the Victorians sent.

Wishing you a bright and glad new year--unless you're a fox, in which case we'll rip you to shreds.

What the heck dinosaurs examining a picture of a man has to do with "compliments of the season" beats me.

 Here's one that some of us might relate to, a man afflicted with various maladies. Happy, happy!

 

Take this, old man! Become vegetarian, or else!

What's with the frogs in Victorian cards? These three are bowling towards a clock striking midnight, using mushrooms as pins.

                                                                    Hi, I'm Satan!
 

Many of these cards have food and eating as a theme. Some are strange and horrifying.

                                Polar bear having an Inuit entree for supper. Yum, yum.

     Woman making boy soup for supper. Note the legs of another child sticking out of the kettle.

                                                            Roast rat for the elves. 

                     Rats are apparently very useful to elves for food and transportation.

                               The tables turned: rats eat cat, with new potatoes on the side.

 

A hairy root vegetable wishes you a happy new year.

                                   Fly away! The new year spider is out to devour you.

                                      Ready to take a train to oblivion? They were in 1889.

 

                            Compliments of the season to you! And a happy, healthy 2022.