nengajo. To deliver these cards on time, the post office usually hires students part-time to help deliver the letters. It is customary not to send these postcards when one has had a death in the family during the year. In this case, a family member sends a simple postcard to inform friends and relatives they should not send New Year's cards, out of respect for the deceased. People get their nengaj from many sources. Stationers sell preprinted cards. Most of these have the Chinese zodiac sign of the New Year as their design, or conventional greetings, or both. The Chinese zodiac has a cycle of 12 years. Each year is represented by an animal. The animals are, in order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar. 2006 was the year of the dog, 2007 was the year of the boar, 2008 was the year of the rat, 2009 was the year of the ox, and 2010 is the year of the tiger
At first, books were copied mostly in bars, one at a time. With the rise of universities in the 13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time led to an increase in the demand for books, and a new system for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably increased. The 4/15 system was maintained by secular stationers guilds, which produced both religious and non-religious material. Judaism has kept the art of the scribe alive up to the present. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah scroll placed in a synagogue must be written by hand on parchment, and a printed book would not do, though the congregation may use printed prayer books, and printed copies of the Scriptures are used for study outside the synagogue. A sofer (scribe) is a highly respected member of any observant Jewish community. Paper books
scientific revolution. Cultural efforescence linked with remarkable economic and financial boom (ordinary people better off). Emergence of professional writer (A.Pope) -> because there was audience like never before („middling sort” – merchant and professional classes). New cultural activity thanks to: paper, printers, publishers, engravers, printsellers. In 1695 lapse of Licencing Act, censorship ceased, Stationers’ Company lost its monopoly. By the 1720 publishing industry scatterd through the city. Provincial press also expanded. Thus, emergence of magazines (the Tatler, the Spectator – foundation stones of early georgian cultural attitudes, then Gentleman’s Magazine, Universal Magazine), journals (Connoisseur, Critical review), everywhere newspapers came into being. Publishing explosion released a flood of prints, trade cards, illustrated books. PAPER gave the bourgeois culture its
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