jock123:
Unless I missed other examples, the cards shown are actually commercial ones he designed for sale in the forties and fifties; the studio cards were more elaborate, and were not available to the public until after he died.
Ah, that's interesting. I'd thought all the cards I'd seen, including those being sold commercially now, were originally Hergé's annual personal ones, with some being more elaborate than others. Thanks for the correction.
I think it's in Benoit Peeter's World of Hergé book (out of print, I believe, and a often bit pricey second hand) that I've seen the most examples of his personal Christmas cards, including quite elaborate ones like pastiche ancient nativity friezes.
jock123:
... including this one, showing Tintin carrying a missal or Bible, apparently on his way to or from church – not definitive proof, but indicative that he’s celebrating Christmas.
Well, yes, in that example I guess he
might simply be on an investigation, following some clue found in an old Bible, and just happening to be walking near a church. Or he might be surreptitiously skiving church, and planning to use the Bible as a makeshift toboggan. ;)
But of course there are enough examples of him processing more directly towards the village church, and examples of him kneeling at a crib, singing carols, decorating Christmas trees, etc, to be pretty sure that he celebrates Christmas in the usual traditional ways.
It's interesting how religious some of these cards are, when there aren't many direct instances of Tintin being particularly religious in the books. There are plenty of religious
references, such as guardian angels, devils, etc, and Tintin's ability to identify the statue of St John as the Eagle suggests a good theological knowledge. But I can't think of any instances of Tintin praying or expressing any personal religious beliefs in the books, even in the early ones when Abbot Wallez seems to have had some influence over what Hergé produced.
Maybe the religious aspects of the Christmas cards would have been so mainstream in pre-1960s Belgium that they wouldn't have stood out as particularly religious at the time. Or maybe it's just that even after Hergé had moved away from the doctrines of organised religion, he still liked the Nativity story and enjoyed a bit of religious stuff (carols, church, etc) at Christmas time. I guess that's true of many of us!