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30 January 2020

Gandhi & Squirrels

Spain, 2019

The first postage stamp featuring Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was released only on on 15 August 1948, a year after India attained independence. Since then, he has been honoured by over 100 countries by issuing postage stamps.

The first nation other than India to release Gandhi postage stamp was the USA on 26 January 1961. It was followed by Congo in 1967. During Gandhi’s birth centenary in 1969, more than 40 countries released postage stamps on the same day.

The year 2019 marked the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), and it is difficult to find a postal administration which did not release a commemorative stamp. You name it: Czech Republic, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Slovenia, Myanmar, Egypt, the United Nations... The list is really long!

I have got, so far, two of those: from France and from Spain.

France, 2019

They arrived a week apart, on letters from Catherine (France) and Imma (PC). Coincidentally... Both accompanied by squirrels! (??).


6 comments:

  1. Hmmmm, maybe it’s the year of the Squirrel for some of us?

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  2. Squirrel village seems to be permanent now, so here it is definitely going to be year of the squirrel.

    You have the most amazing mail coincidences.

    Ghandi has certainly had quite an impact on the world - an amazing example of promoting change for the better through peaceful protest.

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    Replies
    1. All my penpals seem to have something to do with squirrels in 2020... That's an amazing coincidence indeed!

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  3. How coincidental!

    Squirrels in snow are a common topic on xmas/new year cards here in NL (and more European countries, I suppose?).


    Concerning squirrels and new years, I asked an (originally Chinese) colleague about the new lunar year: sometimes I see a mouse pictured, sometimes a rat. She explained to me that it is in fact the year of the murine, which can be both a rat and a mouse. And she told that squirrels in fact also belong to this group of animals (and guinea pigs, when I asked her about these specifically(: ).
    However, the Chinese New Year in fact concerns the Rat and Mouse, and not the other rodents.
    While the Year of the Tiger specifically concerns the tiger, not any other feline animal (no jaguar or lion or so).

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    Replies
    1. I probably prefer mice to rats. The later scare me!

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Thank you for coming. All your comments make me extremely happy.