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 (USPS) The 2009 winter holiday season will be celebrated with stamps featuring a reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man and toy soldier.
USPS Gets in the Holiday Spirit
JANUARY 02, 2009USPS The United States Postal Service gets in the holiday spirit with these Christmas and winter postage stamps.
Christmas: Madonna and Sleeping Child by Sassoferrato
Since 1978, the theme of each “traditional” Christmas stamp has been the Madonna and Child. The 2009 Christmas stamp features Madonna and Sleeping Child, a painting by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi (1609-1685), more commonly known as Sassoferrato. The painting is currently in the collection of Hearst Castle in California. The issuance of the stamp coincides with the 400th anniversary of the birth of the artist. Carl T. Herrman designed the stamp.
The painting depicted on the stamp shows a blond Madonna clothed in red and cradling the sleeping Christ Child in purple cloth. From each of the two top corners, the childlike face of a cherub looks down from the clouds.
Winter Holidays
The 2009 winter holiday season will be celebrated with stamps featuring a reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man and toy soldier.
A merry reindeer dangles a red bulb ornament from his antler. Flurries of large flakes dust a snowman sporting a top hat, coal buttons and a carrot nose. A gingerbread man is decorated for the season, with green, red, and white icing. A toy soldier smiles while standing at attention. Borders of evergreens, stars, wreaths, and holly add another holiday touch to the stamps.
Stamp artist Joseph Cudd, of Greensboro, NC, created the stamps under the direction of Richard Sheaff.
Angel with Lute
This 2009 stamp features a detail of a fragment of a circa-1480 fresco by Melozzo da Forli (1438-1494). Clad in red and green, an angel with a halo strums a lute and glances downward. The original fresco fragment is in Room IV of the Vatican Pinacoteca (art museum), and measures approximately 37 inches by 46 inches.
The musical angel on this stamp was originally part of a larger fresco depicting the ascension of Christ in the apse of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli (Church of the Holy Apostles) in Rome. The complete fresco included Christ, the Apostles, and several angelic musicians. It was painted around 1480 but destroyed in 1711 when the church was reconstructed.
Although few of Melozzo’s works have survived, art historians have praised his skilled use of perspective, and he is sometimes considered one of the great fresco artists of his day. In recent years, his depictions of musical angels have enjoyed a newfound popularity.
Hanukkah
The 2009 Hanukkah design features a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles. The menorah was designed by Lisa Regan of the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Tulsa, OK, and photographed by Ira Wexler of Braddock Heights, MD.
Spanning eight days and nights, Hanukkah is a joyous yearly festival celebrated by Jews around the world. The holiday commemorates the successful revolt of the Jews led by Judah Maccabee against the oppressive government of Antiochus IV and the Seleucid Empire in 165 B.C.E.
Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for "dedication." Tradition relates how a miracle took place during the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated. The remaining supply of sacramental oil, thought to be enough for only one day, burned for eight days.
The eight days and nights of Hanukkah begin on the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, a date that falls in late November or December. Hanukkah begins on Dec. 11 in 2009, and on Dec. 1 in 2010.
During Hanukkah, family members gather each night during the festival to light candles on a special candleholder. Other Hanukkah traditions include singing, the exchange of gifts, and the spinning of the dreidel, a four-sided top. Children typically use chocolate gelt (coins) to make bets on the outcome of each spin of the dreidel.
Kwanzaa
With this colorful stamp, the Postal Service celebrates Kwanzaa, a non-religious holiday that takes place over seven days from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 and draws on African traditions and takes its name from the phrase for "first fruits" in Swahili, a widely spoken African language. Stamp artist Lloyd McNeill of New York City, created a festive, highly symbolic design to celebrate the holiday.
The bold colors in the stamp art are complemented in the top right corner by the colors of the Kwanzaa flag — green for growth, red for blood, and black for the African people — which are the same colors as the Pan-African flag. The field of green around the borders symbolizes growth and a bountiful harvest. In the hoop that the girl holds in her hands, as well as in the family grouping of mother, father, and child, McNeill symbolized unity.
This is the third stamp design issued by the Postal Service in celebration of Kwanzaa. The first Kwanzaa commemorative stamp was issued in 1997. McNeill worked under the direction of Art Director Carl T. Herrman.More stories about stamps:
Chinese New Year and Statehood Commemoration
200th Anniversary of Lincoln's Birth
Collage of Civil Rights Pioneers
Love Is In The Air at the USPS
"Flags of Our Nation" and Supreme Court Justices
Early TV Memories Make Guest Appearance
Edgar Allan Poe Immortalized
Art Series Adds Bob Hope and Gary Cooper
Stamps Celebrate Lighthouses and American Treasures
Nature Series Includes Kelp ForestUSPS: www.usps.com
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