2019-01-24 Thu

On 17th January, the USPS released a new postage stamp to celebrate “Year of the Boar” at the Chinese Community Center in Houston, Texas. It’s the 12th and last stamp from the country’s Celebrating Lunar New Year series which was introduced in 2008. Several Asian communities celebrate the Lunar New Year with a lot of zest and fervour. Year of the Boar or Pig begins on 5th February 2019 and will end on 24th January 2020.

The stamps feature pink coloured flowers that grow on peach trees. These flowers generally bloom in China at the start of February. The stamp design was created by Art director Ethel Kessler. He used original artwork by Kam Mak which contains two elements from the earlier series of Lunar New Year stamps. One is a cut-paper design of a boar created by Clarence Lee’s and the other is the Chinese character for “boar” drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun. A souvenir sheet of 12 self-adhesive Forever stamps is available.

Each Lunar Year is associated with one of the 12 Chinese Zodiac creatures. As per Chinese beliefs, people born in a particular Lunar Year, share the same characteristics associated with the associated creature. Those who are born in the year of the boar are considered to be generous, compassionate, focused and determined. America was also founded in the year of the boar, 1776. Officials hope that the New Year brings in good luck and fortune.

Image Courtesy: The USPS