1st April: Islamic Republic Day of Iran

Islamic Republic Day of Iran is celebrated on Farvardin 12, which falls on or around April 1st every year.

On April 1st, 1979, the Iranian Revolution resulted in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was supported by the United States, and its eventual replacement with an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was the ruler of Iran (Shah of Iran) from 1941 till 1979. The above image depicts the Shah on a circa 1959 stamp issue by Iran.

30th March: National Doctor's Day (America)

 On October 30, 1990, President George Bush designated March 30 as America's National Doctor's Day.This day was first observed in the year 1991. This day is commonly celebrated in healthcare organizations to recognize the contributions of physicians to everyone's lives and communities. 

The following stamp was issued by India in the year 2009.

27th March: World Theater Day

World Theater Day is celebrated on 27th March every year. It was first observed in the year 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). 
This  day is  celebrated  so that everyone  in the world can collaborate around the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace.

On this day, ITI invites a personality who is outstanding in theatre or outstanding in heart and spirit from another field to share his or her reflections on theatre and international harmony.

The author of the Message of World Theatre Day 2002 was Girish Karnad - the only Indian theatre personality to have this honor till date.

The author of the Message of World Theatre Day 2014 is the South African play writer, designer, director and installation maker Brett Bailey.

The above stamp was issued by Kenya in 1979. It shows a scene from "Lion and the Jewel", a novel written by Wole Soyinka. This Nigerian author won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and incidentally was the World Theatre Day Message Author in the same year.

26th March: Bangladesh Independence Day

Bangladesh's Independence day is celebrated on 26th March every year. Bangladesh got its Independence from Pakistan on 26th March 1971. This day  acts as a memorial  of thousands of civilians who died for their own country during the Bangladesh Liberation War. 

Dhaka is the capital of independent Bangladesh. Above is a stamp depicting the Kamalapur railway station in Dhaka issued in the year 1983.    This railway station is the largest in the country and the most important terminal for transportation between Dhaka and the rest of the country.

23rd March: World Meteorological Day

The World Meteorological day is celebrated on March 23rd. It was first observed in the year 1950. 

The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization which was founded in 1873. This UN body  recognizes the importance of weather, climate and meteorological forecasting to the natural environment and human well-being.

The above stamp was issued by India in 1975

21st March: International Day of Forests

March 21st is observed as the International Day of Forests.  In 1971, the 16th session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)  gave their vote to “World Forestry Day."  Then the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) held six Forest Days from 2007 to 2012.  Finally, the date was fixed, on November 28, 2012, by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).  And it was first observed on March 21, 2013.  

A plant takes several years to grow, yet we took 41 years to fix a date to remind ourselves of the importance of nature, knowing well that it takes as little as a few minutes to destroy years worth of nature's growth. We know too well how much we are dependent directly and indirectly on forests for shelter, fuel, food, supplies for everything little to huge. Though we are benefitting from it, we are damaging forests in a massive way.  Think about it, that every minute, we are destroying 60-foot ball playground size forests.

Our greed seems to have taken over. For how long will play dumb and turn a blind eye?  For how long will we shove away the moral and ethical responsibility we have by not utilizing god's gift properly?  For how long will we continue to kill our forests? 

We are not the owners of the forests, we are but simple borrowers of nature's supplies, and we must be responsible and cough up reparations for the forests, starting now. Let this day be a reminder to all of us to build a plan for sustenance.  

Every act as every individual matters.  I have planted one on my balcony, how about you?  

The above stamp issued by India in 2009 depicts the "Silent Valley" National Park in Kerala, India. A unique preserve of tropical rain forests, it is closed on all sides with high and continuous ridges and steep slopes.

21st March, World Poetry Day

World poetry day is celebrated on March 21. This day is celebrated for those who are remembered for their talent in poetry. 

When we think of poetry day, most of us remember famous poets like Rabindranath Tagore and Subramania Bharathi. A poet who has had an enormous impact during the formative phase of India is Kavi Pradeep (Kavi means poet). He is best known for his poem "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo" (O people of my country). This poem can be seen in the backdrop of the stamp issued in 2011 by India.

20th March, World Sparrow Day

World sparrow day is celebrated on 20th March every year since  2010. It was established by Mohammed Dilawar, the founder of The Nature Forever Society in India in collaboration with Christian Pilard, the founder of the Eco-Sys Action Foundation  and various other national and international organisations throughout the world to promote awareness of the house sparrow and other similar birds.

World sparrow day is celebrated to create awareness about these disappearing birds (sparrows). One of the main reasons why they are disappearing is the rapid loss of their natural habitat like trees etc.

The harsh summer season is knocking on our door and the birds need cool shades and water just like humans.  Let's keep a bowl of water and grains outside our house like on the balcony or on the window sill for them to feed on. 

Here is a stamp depicting the picture of a sparrow, issued by India in 2010

19th March, National Poultry Day (America)

There are several food holidays that are celebrated all across America. Believe it or not, there is one for Doughnuts, Pie, Whipped Cream and Corn-chips. 

Poultry day is definitely one of the more popular among them. 19th March is officially recognized as the National Poultry Day in the United States. 

Poultry refers to domestic fowl that are normally raised for meat and eggs such as chicken, turkey, ducks and geese to name a few.  It is believed that Europeans introduced Poultry in America and during World Wars only America saw an exponential rise in the Poultry, because of scarcity of food.

The above stamp was issued by Switzerland in 1994, depicting a hen, rooster and chickens.

18th March: Bio-Diesel Day

National Biodiesel Day is celebrated every year on 18th March,  which is the birth anniversary of Rudolf Diesel. He is the  inventor of the diesel engine, was also a pioneer of biofuels.  He developed the first diesel engine ran on peanut oil, a biofuel.

Way back in 1912,Diesel said,"...the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time."

Biomass, is the raw materials that can be used to produce biofuels. Sugar cane, wood residue and soybeans are some of the most commonly used biomass on the market. Biodiesel is an advanced biofuel made from sustainable resources such as soybean oil, recycled grease and other fats and oils.

The above stamp was issued by Australia in 2004 as part of renewable energy set of stamps. 

16th March: National Vaccination Day

India observes National Immunization Day ( NID ) on 16th March every year. National Immunization Day was first observed on 16th March 1995 when first dose of Oral Polio Vaccine was given.
The observance of National Immunization Day is an attempt to enhance awareness for the eradication of polio from planet earth. Every year on this day, millions of children are immunized with the polio vaccine. 

The above Pulse Polio Immunization stamp is a Special Definitive stamp issued by India Post.

15th March: World Consumer Rights Day

World Consumer Rights Day was established on 15th March 1983 to promote consumer rights around the world.

This day is organized by Consumers International (CI), which is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers. Around the world the day will be marked with local initiatives, including campaigns,workshops and street events for promoting the basic rights of all consumers.

Each year, the CI Council selects a theme for WCRD activities.The theme for 2013 was  "Consumer Justice Now!" and the theme for this year activities is "Fix our phone rights!"

The above stamp was issued by India in 2012 to commemorate the Consumer Protection Act of 1986

14th March: America's National Pi Day

 Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3.14 or 3/14 in the U.S. month/day date format), since 3, 1, and 4 are the three most significant digits of π in the decimal form. Pi Day was first organized by Larry Shaw, physicist in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium.On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing March 14 as National Pi Day.In the year 2015, Pi Day will have special significance on 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 a.m. and p.m., with the date and time representing the first 10 digits of pi.

In 1914, the Indian Math wizard Ramanujan published a formula for PI that converges remarkably faster than many other approaches. See here. 

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The above stamp depicting Srinivasa Ramanujan was issued by India in 2012

Using Stamps for School Projects..

When there was a need to create a small project activity about metro cities, I wanted to do something off-beat. Typically, we write some essay and attach some photographs.

I took this opportunity to use stamps to depict bit and pieces of Chennai's (erstwhile Madras) history. Overall, this has been quite well received both by the teachers and also my friends.

One page is shown below and the full project is in this pdf file.

For those of you who do not know much about Chennai, please visit the Wikipedia page here.

Veenai Dhanammal

The theme for Europas (special stamps issued by European Postal Administration) this year stamps issues is “National Musical Instruments”.  Since I have no idea what stamps India is going to issue this year, I decided to do something related to this topic.  Having said that India’s National Instrument is veena. When it comes to veenai the person coming to our mind is “Veenai Dhanammal”.

Veenai Dhanammal was born in George Town, Madras (now Chennai) in 1867. Dhanammal hails from the devadasi  tradition ("servant of God")  where women dancers where dedicated to the temple. Veenai Dhanammal was a good vocalist and veena player.

Dhanammal was a maverick choosing the Veena in an era where the instrument was entirely male dominated.  In time she developed an identifiable style of her own, what is now called Veena Dhanammal Style. She devoted her entire life for classical music.

 The above stamps was issued in India in 2010

3rd March: World Wildlife Day

At the 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly  decided to proclaim March 3, as World Wildlife Day, to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora.
Because of population, deforestation and pollution etc,most of the animals are becoming endangered. Here is a message to draw attention towards this problem.
“PLANTS AND ANIMALS CAN LIVE WITHOUT HUMAN BEINGS BUT,WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT THEM”.



Here are a few stamps showcasing the theme ‘wildlife’ issued by India.

2nd March: Dr. Seuss' Birthday aka. National Read Across America Day

Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist. Mr. Seuss was born on March-2nd, 1904. He was most widely known for his children's books written and illustrated as Dr. Seuss.

Some of his most popular works include The Cat in the Hat, Horton hears a Who!, Green Eggs and Ham and The Grinch who stole Christmas. Many of these were subsequently made into successful movies.

He was a stickler for perfection and is famous for his lovely play on words, He was so instrumental in encouraging children to read that his birthday is now celebrated as the National Read Across America Day.

Seen above is one stamp, part of a se-tenant issue by Angola depicting a "Cat in the Hat" (year-unknown: If you know when it was issued, please let us know).

1st March: World Compliment Day

March-1st is becoming popular as World Compliment Day. Let others know how you sincerely appreciate them. No need for any special gifts; just a few kind words would do.

In contrast to many other "Day"s that are increasingly commercialized (Valentines, Mothers etc.), the hope is to keep World Compliment Day down-to-earth. Currently this is limited to a few countries, mainly in Europe.

 



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