Lunar New Year Stamp Highlights Year of the Snake

News provided by

Jan 16, 2013, 01:30 ET

Early Stamp Issuance Gives Customers Time to Usher in Celebrations with a Bang

WASHINGTON , Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the U.S. Postal Service released its 2013 Lunar New Year stamp, featuring firecrackers, paper-cut designs and Chinese calligraphy, to help customers usher in the Year of the Snake.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130116/DC43619)

The Lunar New Year is celebrated primarily by people of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan and Mongolian heritage in many parts of the world. In the United States, as elsewhere, the occasion is marked with parades, parties and other special events. This year, Lunar New Year is Sunday, Feb. 10 and the Postal Service issued the limited edition stamp in plenty of time for customers to mail new year's greetings.

"We are proud to celebrate this special time with our friends in the Asian community," said Nagisa Manabe, chief marketing and sales officer. "With this year's limited edition stamp, we're providing our customers the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of these stamps and use them in their new year's greetings to friends and family."

The Postal Service introduced the Celebrating Lunar New Year series in 2008. This is the sixth stamp in that series, which will continue through 2019 with the Years of the Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar.

Illustrator Kam Mak, an artist who was born in Hong Kong, grew up New York City's Chinatown and now lives in Brooklyn, has designed each stamp in the series and will continue through the remaining six in the 12-year series.

This year's stamp features one of the primary ways the Lunar New Year holiday is celebrated. For the Year of the Snake, which begins on Feb. 10, the illustration depicts firecrackers commonly used to greet the new year with a bang.

Firecrackers are used to scare off evil spirits and welcome a time of renewed hope for the future. Monetary gifts are given to children and others. Lucky foods are eaten — kumquats, for example — and festive lanterns, colored red for luck, are common Lunar New Year decorations.

The current series builds upon the Postal Service's original Lunar New Year stamp series, which was issued from 1992 through 2003. Two elements from the first series are revived in the current stamps: the intricate paper-cut design and calligraphy motifs.

Customers may view the Lunar New Year Forever stamps, as well as many of next year's other stamps, on Facebook at facebook.com/USPSStamps, on Twitter @USPSstamps or on the website Beyond the Perf at beyondtheperf.com/2013-preview. Beyond the Perf is the Postal Service's online site for information on upcoming stamp subjects, first-day-of-issue events and other philatelic news.

There are three philatelic products for these stamps.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

578684, Press Sheet with die cuts, $48.60.
578686, Press Sheets without die cuts, $48.60.
578623, Notecards (Set of 12 with stamps), $16.95.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service on www.twitter.com/USPSstamps and at www.facebook.com/USPSSTAMPS

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service