Christmas and New Year Stamps…

 

 

Hi ! As the festive season of Christmas and New Year  approaches, new stamps are being issued by countries round the world…Here are some wonderful stamps issued for this year’s Christmas and New Year recently !!

Russia

Date of Issue : 1 December 2011

Traditionally, the Russian Post issues a thematic stamp for the New Year. This time it depicts a red Christmas ball with snowflakes on a gray background.

In Russia, the first Christmas trees appeared as ornaments in the XIX century on roofs and fences of pubs. Following the European fashion, Russian people began decorating Christmas trees in 1860-1870-s. Only wealthy people could afford ordering toys in Europe. To buy a glass toy at the end of XIX century for the inhabitants of Russia was the same thing that to buy a car for the modern Russian citizen.

Korea Post

The Korean Post has issued a stamp commemorating the Year of the Dragon. The New Year's greetings stamps have been printed with photo storage ink since 2001. This year, the dragon's body and the pearl-white snowflakes in the stamp are also printed using photo storage ink and glow in the dark.

Being a creature of legends, the dragon is described to have an immense body of a snake, the horns of a deer, the ear of a cow, scaly skin, and four legs. Since ancient times, the dragon has been associated to greatness, thus symbolizing royal authority or the throne. In addition, the dragon has been positioned as an auspicious symbol in our everyday life: a dream of forthcoming conception that involves a dragon led to the expectation of the baby growing up to be a great man; farmers worshipped the dragon as the god of water that governs the success of their harvest; fishermen worshipped the dragon as the Dragon King that governs the sea.

Uruguay

Correo Uruguayo has issued a stamp celebrating Christmas 2011. The stamp illustrates Uruguayan version of Maria, gaucho (shepherd) and baby Jesus in Christmas crib.

Switzerland

"Chapel", "Christmas tree" and "Chalet" - three new special stamps from Swiss Post accentuate this year's Christmas mail with a festive note. A new feature of the Christmas stamps is that they are self-adhesive.

Sweden

Swedish Postal Service has issued a set of winter stamps featuring images of snowflakes taken by Libbrecht . This year's stamps for international holiday greetings depict snow crystals

Recently Libbrecht was awarded the Lennart Nilsson Award, recognizing extraordinary image-makers in science. Libbrecht has taken photographs of both natural and synthetic snowflakes, revealing stunning, unusual designs. He has published several calendars and books on snowflakes describing the art and science of snowflakes.

Capturing - or creating - the most ethereal snowflakes is a passion of Caltech physicist, Ken Libbrecht, one of the world's top experts on snowflakes and ice crystal formations. Libbrecht is also passionate about photographing snowflakes, (utilizing a custom-built photo-microscope).