April Celebrations

This stamp was drawn for children of Tuvalu. It makes part of the project "Send Tuvalu to the World" (2010). In fact, I received this stamp long time ago, and I have already published it here (see also the postmark Earth Day related).

The theme of Sunday Stamps in Viridian's Postcard Blog is Earth Day and other April Celebrations. The Earth Day is not widely celebrated in my country, nor in Morocco. Except for some activities in schools is completely unnoticed.

So I want to post about Saint George, the saint patron of Catalonia and Aragon (among other many places). In Catalonia Saint George's Day (Diada de Sant Jordi) is also known as The Day of the Rose or The day of the Book. The main event is the exchange of gifts between beloved relatives, friends and colleagues. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book. In modern times, the mutual exchange of books is also customary. Believe me: 23rd of April Barcelona and other cities of Catalonia are worth visiting! (and Valencian Country, to a certain extent). Thousands of stands of roses and bookstalls are set up for the occasion. Most women carry a rose in hand, and people seems really happy.

There is any issue of Saint George's Day's stamps. So I'm showing you these:

This one features the flag and the map of Catalonia. Issued by Spanish postal Service (Correos) in January 2011. The A on the stamp means that it is a forever stamp (for domestic letters or postcards up to 20 g). There are forever stamps for Europe with a B.

And two roses for you. Happy Sant Jordi's Day!

From Spain

From Finland

Special Postmarks

Some nice round postmarks received long time ago from Stefan (Switzerland), Fori (China) and Earth Day Team (Tuvalu).

From Tuvalu

This special postcard was received from Tuvalu and belongs to "Send Tuvalu to the world" project for Earth Day 2010.

Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia, formerly known as the Ellice Islands. 

I'm lucky because they live less than 10,500 people in Tuvalu. So it's quite difficult to get a postcard from there!

And it could be more difficult in the future. Due to global warming and the rising of sea-level, there are predictions that in the next 50 years the entire population will have to be evacuated. The ocean can swallow Tuvalu whole, making it the first country to be wiped off the map by climate change.