Monday, April 18

Armenian post of Nagorno-Karabakh 2022

Armenian post of Nagorno-Karabakh

Date of Issue: 18th April 2022

two stamps (2x 500.- AMD)


those two stamps are issued in mini-sheets of 10 stamps


both stamps are also issued in a mini-sheet of 10 stamps (5 of each)

NOTE : those 3 types of mini-sheets are also issued in unperforated version

Birth of Vahagn : Vahagn was a god of fire, thunder, and war worshiped in ancient Armenia. Some time during ancient history, he formed a "triad" with Aramazd and Anahit. Vahagn was identified with the Greek deity Heracles. The priests of Vahévahian temple, who claimed Vahagn as their own ancestor, placed a statue of the Greek hero in their sanctuary. In the Armenian translation of the Bible, "Heracles, worshipped at Tyr" is renamed "Vahagn". Source Wikipedia

Hayk and Bel : Hayk was a handsome, friendly man, with curly hair, sparkling eyes, and strong arms. He was a man of giant stature, a mighty archer and fearless warrior. Hayk and his people, from the time of their forefathers Noah and Japheth, had migrated south toward the warmer lands near Babylon. In that land there ruled a wicked giant, Bel. Bel tried to impose his tyranny upon Hayk's people. But proud Hayk refused to submit to Bel. As soon as his son Aramaniak was born, Hayk rose up and led his people northward into the land of Ararad. At the foot of the mountain he built a village and gave it his name, calling Haykashen. Hayk is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. Source Wikipedia
NOTE : Those 2 legends were already depicted by Armenia on their 1997 Europa stamps on the common theme : "Tales and legends"

NOTE : the stamps issued by the Republic of Artsakh aren't recognized on an international level, not by the UPU nor by PostEurop.

Those stamps are listed in most stamps catalogues (Gibbons, Yvert & Tellier, Michel) and most Europa stamps collectors collect those stamps even if they aren't official stamp issues.

Friday, April 8

Poland 2022

Poland

Date of Issue: 21st of April 2022

one stamp (4.50 PLN)

this stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 9 stamps


The Wawel Dragon (Polish: Smok Wawelski), also known as the Dragon of Wawel Hill, is a famous dragon in Polish folklore.

According to the earliest account (13th century), a dragon plagued the capital city of Kraków established by legendary King Krak. The man-eating monster was being appeased with a weekly ration of cattle, until finally defeated by the king's sons using decoy cows stuffed with sulfur. But the younger prince murdered his elder brother to take sole credit, and was banished afterwards. Consequently Princess Wanda had to succeed the kingdom.

Later in a 15th-century chronicle, the prince-names were swapped, with the elder as "Krak junior" and the younger as Lech. It also credited the king himself with masterminding the carcasses full of sulfur and other reagents. A yet later chronicler (Marcin Bielski, 1597) credited the stratagem to a cobbler named Skub (Skuba), adding that the "Dragon's Cave" (Polish: Smocza Jama) lay beneath Wawel Castle (on Wawel Hill on the bank of the Vistula River). Source : Wikipedia



Wednesday, April 6

Latvia 2022

Latvia

Date of Issue: 8th April 2022

two stamps (1.77 & 1.98 €)


 both stamps are issued in mini-sheets of 10 stamps tête-bêche


One of the stamps shows Heavenly Father or God riding a white horse, while the other stamp shows a scene where Heavenly Father feeds the snakes.

There are many different stories about the Heavenly Father in Latvian folklore - in folk songs it is mentioned that he has a wide coat, wears a belt with a sword, a white skirt and a cane, but elsewhere he is also mentioned as a little man. He usually rides a horse, but often also rides in sleighs and carriages, but his horses also appear in other ways - like black dogs, black ravens and black oxen with white horns.

Feeding snakes or reverence for snakes in mythology has been found in many peoples since ancient times - tradition has it that souls appear in the form of snakes. In the past, some mythologists thought that the cult of snakes originated from the cult of souls, but in Latvian mythology, vultures have nothing to do with laundry or souls. All the deities, according to old deceptions, have been able to do good and evil to man, so they have been made favorable in various ways. The only fact is that the ancient Latvians kept the logs as guardians of the cows and that the Milk Mother herself sometimes appeared in the form of a log, maybe also a calf. Source : Latvijas Pasts


Tuesday, April 5

Romania 2022

Romania

Date of Issue: 8th April 2022

two stamps (10.- & 16.- RON)
 

both stamps are issued in 2 types of souvenir-sheets of 4 stamps (2 stamps of each). The position of both stamps and the frame is different in each souvenir-sheet.


 both stamps are issued in mini-sheets of 6 stamps


NOTE those stamps are also issued in sheets of 32 stamps with 1 row (4 stamps) of tête-bêche stamps !


 

A limited souvenir-sheet is also issued in a limited number of 313 blocs only. It shows the 2 Europa stamps imperforate

Legend of the Moldavian Aurochs (10.- RON) and the Legend of the “Bull Head” first stamp (16.- RON). - In the northern part of the incomparable Transylvania there is a land of a special beauty: Voivodal Maramures. There, the sky rests on the high towers of wooden churches, to the construction of which unsurpassed craftsmen did not use even an iron nail.

There, the clear springs leap their water over the stone thresholds, humming a mysterious music, taken from the strings of the violins and in the hoot of the alphorns. The people of Maramures, called moroseni, proud, with a pure soul, are the descendants of those who gave the name of the land, the voivodes who made true and lasting history.

In the Land of Maramures there were, in the 14th century, seven principalities (territories under the jurisdiction of a ruler, called a knyaz, or prince). One of the most important principalities was the one from Cuhea, also known as belonging to the Bogdanesti family. It was located on the Viseu River Valley and on the upper course of the Iza River. In Cuhea was the centre of government and administration, the residence of the voivodal family from which Bogdan I, the founder of Moldavia, was originating.

The principalities had emerged as organized forms of Romanian resistance against Hungarian expansion. The local princes (knyaz), in turn, had elected a voivode of all Romanians in Maramures (Voyvoda Olachorum de Maramurisio).

In this dignity was, in 1343, the legendary Dragos, a pilgrim at the head of an army placed in the service of King Louis of Anjou of Hungary.

A descendant of Carol Robert, Louis continued the policy of expansion, which, at that time, presupposed the stringent removal of the danger of the Tatar invasion from the borders of the kingdom, also accepting as a solution the help of the Romanian voivodes (considered vassals).

In such a situation, accompanied by a cohort of cavalry, voivode Dragos advanced on one of the narrow roads of the secular forests of Bukovina, to the eastern lands, where the vast plains were taken over by the Tartar hordes.

Somewhere, in front of the army, the companion dogs, led by a beautiful specimen of the breed, the female dog Molda, belonging to the voivode, had begun to show signs of impatience, as if urging them to hurry.

After a while, the road began to widen, stopping in a beautiful meadow that bordered the banks of a clear and fast river.

Across the river, an unexpected image unfolded to the soldiers: a big, fierce aurochs staring from under the broad branch of a tree at the dogs, who, standing in a line by the river, were barking angrily, not having the courage to try the cold of the water. Hitting the ground hard with his front legs, the aurochs moved toward the noisy animals. Gushing from the shore alignment, Molda jumped into the river, quickly reaching the opposite bank. The aurochs, a little astonished, slowed down a little, but resumed his walking vigorously when Molda clearly showed the start of the attack. Pulling out furrows of grass, the blow with the horns threw the dog’s body upwards, and the aurochs, as if by a well-thought calculation, found itself immediately on the spot where the dog was about to fall, applying a new blow, this time deadly. Blood rushed to the voivode’s cheeks, and before the soldiers could move, he rode his horse, rushing furiously at the fierce animal. Arriving near the aurochs, the horse turned to the right, avoiding a direct collision. The soldiers had drawn their bows but were afraid to release the arrows for fear of injuring the voivode.

Dragos had hurried away by a short detour and had pulled out his heavy mace with steel fangs. The horse, strongly reined in, headed back towards the aurochs, which, with its head down, almost touching the grass, was moving menacingly towards the rider. For a moment he looked up at the man who had broken his territory. With unusual force, the voivode’s mace was thrown directly at the animal’s forehead. The blood from the wounds was visible and the aurochs’ gait was interrupted in a slow knee. The soldiers, who had meanwhile crossed the river, while sitting in the saddle, threw their short spears at the fallen body, causing it dozens of injuries, through which the animal’s strength drained out with its life.

Reality or legend, the story continued with the burial of Molda and the baptism of the river with the name Molda.

The Tartar armies were defeated and the voivode Dragos would later return to Baia, his royal fortress, where he ordered that the face of the aurochs, which had been killed by him in circumstances
of great danger, to be sewn with gold thread on the princely flags. In the next seven years of his reign, Dragos, Sas (son of Dragos) and Balc (son of Sas) succeeded each other in the seat of little Moldavia. The locals, however, rebelled against the sovereignty imposed by the king of Hungary.

In 1359, supported by Moldavians eager for independence, the voivode Bogdan arrived in Baia. Sas got chased away, and Bogdan became the leader of Greater Moldavia (by adding to Dragos’s Little Moldavia all political parties on the territory of Moldavia).

Exactly 500 years later, in 1859, Greater Moldova would add another country, Muntenia (Wallachia), under the sceptre of a single ruler, Alexandru Ioan Cuza.

The flags of Bogdan I continued to bear the image of the aurochs head, taken over in time by the sculptors who adorned the royal churches with ornaments. Louis of Anjou recognized, after a few lost battles, the exit of Moldavia from under the Crown of Saint Stephen through the Royal Diploma (February 2nd, 1365).

Almost a century after the enthronement of Bogdan I, on the flags of Moldavia carried by the brave soldiers of Stephen the Great, shone from the fabric of golden threads, the coat of arms of the country having as its central image the Aurochs Head.

History added new documents, arriving in a time in the capital of Moldavia, Iasi in 1858. There and then, in July, the first postage stamps were printed, whose drawing reproduced, next to the post horn, the Bull Head, with a five-pointed star between the horns. The drawing, whose author had never seen an aurochs (this animal had disappeared in the seventeenth century), vaguely reproduces the true image of the wild aurochs, but accustomed to the coat of arms of their country, Moldavians did not respond critically to the lack of veracity of the image.

The appearance of the postage stamp was a surprise for the inhabitants of Moldavia and for the officials of the Post Office, so another inconsistency was overlooked: the inscription of the stamp with the words PORTO SCRISORI instead of FRANCO SCRISORI. (PORTO is the fee paid upon receipt of correspondence, unlike FRANCO, which refers to prepayment, on posting). Source : Romfilatelia

Saturday, April 2

Slovakia 2022

Slovakia

Date of Issue: 2nd May 2022

one stamp (1.50 EUR)


this stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 8 stamps



this stamp is also issued in a booklet (6 stamps) - NOTE the stamps from the booklet are self-adhesive
 

Lomidrevo or Valibuk - Typical Slovak fairytale story about a young man with a heart made of gold overcoming circumstances (and fighting dragons, of course ) to save the day. On this epic road, he learns a lot about people and their nature, about the world, about himself and he also got a stunning princess as his bride. Full story here


Friday, April 1

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Croat post) 2022

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Croat post)

Date of Issue: 5th April 2022

two stamps (2x 3.00 BAM)


both stamps are also issued in 2 souvenir-sheets of 1 stamp



both stamps are issued in a mini-sheet of 8 stamps (4 of each) printed "tête-bêche"

The Slavic people worshiped various deities, and research has led to the fact that the god of thunder and lightning, Perun, is considered the supreme god of the Slavic pantheon. He rules the living world by dwelling in a fort on the highest branch of the tree of life. His wife is the goddess of fertility and protector of women, Mokosh. She is the mother of the wet Earth and the bright Sun. Perun is depicted as a rough red-haired man, symbolized by an eagle sitting on an oak branch watching the world. The water god of the underworld, Veles, is his enemy who lives at the root of the tree of life and is symbolized by the serpent. The most significant myth of Slavic mythology is the struggle between Perun and Veles who steals the Sun - Mokosh and takes her to the underworld, where she spends half a year. Perun pursues Veles with his lightning and thunder and expels him to the underground to bring back Mokosh and restore order. The myth was repeated every year in a circular cycle following the movement of the Sun and the seasons. (Željka Šaravanja)

Wednesday, March 30

Albania 2021

Albania

Date of Issue: 30th March 2022 [!]

one stamp (150.- ALL) and one souvenir-sheet (250.- ALL)


the stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 9 stamps

a different souvenir-sheet with two stamps (150- & 250.- ALL) is also issued in a booklet






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