2010-2011: 'Year of the Tiger'

In 2010, the U.S. Postal Service will issue the third of 12 stamps in its Celebrating Lunar New Year series, which began in 2008 with the Year of the Rat. The Year of the Tiger will begin February 14, 2010 and end February 2, 2011. The 44-cent stamp will go on sale nationwide January 14 and be dedicated at the El Pueblo Historic Monument in Old Chinatown in Los Angeles.

Art director Ethel Kessler worked on the new series with illustrator Kam Mak, a Chinese American artist who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown. They decided to focus on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year Holiday is celebrated. To commemorate the Year of the Tiger, they chose narcissus flowers, considered auspicious at any time of year and thus especially appropriate at this time of renewed hope for the future.