All of this year's holiday stamps have a common thread --- they are all "Forever" stamps. To help get everyone in the spirit, the Postal Service is kicking off the 2011 holiday season with stamp issues.
Inspired by 1950s-era ornaments, the festive Holiday Baubles Forever stamps feature four colorful ornaments sure to add to the joys of the season. These baubles also may inspire fond memories of beloved ornaments from childhood — objects that still have the power to enchant us today.
For many years, the Postal Service has issued traditional Christmas stamps featuring the Madonna and Child. The Christmas stamp for 2011 presents a detail from a painting by the Italian master Raphael, entitled Madonna of the Candelabra. This circular painting dates around 1513, and, is now in the Walters Art Museum collection in Baltimore, MD.
The eight days and nights of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begin on Dec. 20. During Hanukkah, family members gather each night during the festival to light candles on a special candleholder called a menorah. 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, a non-religious holiday, takes place over seven days beginning each year on Dec. 26 and ending Jan. 1. Kwanzaa draws on African traditions and takes its name from the phrase for “first fruits" in Swahili, a widely spoken African language. Its origins are in harvest celebrations that occurred in various places across the African continent in ancient and modern times. The holiday is intended to be a celebration of seven principles — unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith — based on values prevalent in African culture.
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