{"id":25412,"date":"2019-01-18T10:03:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T15:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=25412"},"modified":"2019-01-18T10:03:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T15:03:29","slug":"postal-service-celebrates-lunar-new-year-with-year-of-the-boar-forever-stamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2019\/01\/18\/postal-service-celebrates-lunar-new-year-with-year-of-the-boar-forever-stamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal Service Celebrates Lunar New Year with Year of the Boar Forever Stamp"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lunar<\/figure>\n

HOUSTON\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 Bright pink peach blossoms highlight the 2019 Year of the Boar Forever stamp, the 12th and final stamp in the Celebrating Lunar New Year\u00a0series<\/a>. The U.S. Postal Service dedicated the stamps today during a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the\u00a0Chinese Community Center<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in Houston, TX. The public is asked to share the news of the stamp using the hashtag\u00a0#LunarNewYear<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be in Houston to celebrate this occasion,\u201d said Luke Grossmann, USPS vice president of finance and planning. \u201cThe Postal Service has long celebrated our nation\u2019s rich heritage through our stamp program. The brilliant design of this stamp helps celebrate the diversity of the American experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the world, millions of people welcome a new year with gifts, music and celebration. Individuals born during the Year of the Boar are said to be generous, compassionate and warm-hearted. Diligent and focused, these individuals often have a great sense of responsibility and finish what they start.<\/p>\n

Lunar New Year is the most important holiday of the year for many Asian communities. In the United States and elsewhere, the occasion is celebrated in various ways. Parades featuring enormous and vibrantly painted papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 dragons, parties and other special events are common festivities enjoyed on New Year\u2019s Day and in the days that follow. The Lunar New Year is observed primarily by people of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan and Mongolian heritage.<\/p>\n

The boar, also referred to as a pig, is one of 12 zodiac animal signs associated with the Chinese lunar calendar. The 2019 Year of the Boar begins Feb. 5 and ends Jan. 24, 2020.<\/p>\n

Peach blossoms, like those depicted in the stamp art, are of particular significance during this time of year. In China, peach trees typically bloom in early February, just in time for the new year, with the striking pink blossoms marking the beginning of spring.<\/p>\n

Combining original artwork by Kam Mak with two elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps \u2014 Clarence Lee\u2019s intricate cut-paper design of a boar and the Chinese character for \u201cboar\u201d drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun \u2014 art director Ethel Kessler created a culturally rich stamp design that celebrates the diversity of America.<\/p>\n

Introduced in 2008, Celebrating Lunar New Year is the second series honoring the Lunar New Year.\u00a0The first series ran from 1992 to 2007. The Year of the Boar is being issued as a souvenir sheet of 12 self-adhesive Forever stamps.<\/p>\n

Postal Products<\/strong>
\nMany of this year\u2019s other stamps may be viewed on\u00a0Facebook<\/a><\/em>\u00a0or via\u00a0Twitter<\/a><\/em>. A video of the ceremony will be available on\u00a0Facebook.com\/usps<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at\u00a0usps.com\/shop<\/em><\/a>, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through\u00a0USA Philatelic<\/u><\/em>, or at Post Office locations nationwide. Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.<\/p>\n

Information on ordering first-day-of-issue postmarks and covers is found at\u00a0usps.com\/shop<\/em><\/a>\u00a0under \u201cCollectors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014 Bright pink peach blossoms highlight the 2019 Year of the Boar Forever stamp, the 12th and final stamp in the Celebrating Lunar New Year\u00a0series. The U.S. Postal Service dedicated the stamps today during a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the\u00a0Chinese Community Center\u00a0in Houston, TX. The public is asked to share the news of the stamp using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25413,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25412\/revisions\/25413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}