2 "Happy New Year" greetings of long ago

Once upon a time, before singing New Year's cards with moving parts popped up on computers, before text messages and songs were transmitted to our mobile phones, and even the telephone was a rarity – hand written mail would come to every town (a children's song tells about the red mail van arriving today) and connect us to the rest of the world. People wrote letters with pens, and when the holiday arrived everyone sent "Happy New Year" greetings. The city streets teemed with stalls selling thousands of greeting cards sprinkled with gold and silver, with pictures of children or soldiers, with tanks or flowers.
These greeting cards were characterized primarily by naivety, hope and a fervent wish that the new state would be a new beginning and would overcome memories of the past. Here we see children walking in the fields hand in hand. Their figures are disproportional large and it seems as if they are floating. The simple houses and the water tower indicate the new settlement. All around it are green areas and bare hills that are awaiting "Keren Kayemet L'Israel" forestation projects. There are no others to share the land with and no sign of an old village. This is a picture of national rebirth on virgin soil – the essence of the image of an empty country absorbing gladly the children of the dream, its redeemers.
The picture exudes innocence and hope. This is a "Happy New Year" of harmony with friendly nature, of faith in the children's future and the hope that the children (to whom the staff has been passed) will create a new world – the young state of Israel.