La baguette Scratch-and-Sniff stamp

 La baguette

The baguette is not just a staple of our daily lives; it is the emblem of our gastronomy and the crown jewel of French culture.

St. Honoré, the patron saint of bakers, is also revered by confectioners, pastry chefs, flour sellers, and candlemakers. Honoré passed away on January 16th and his feast day is May 16th, 600 AD, a date that is celebrated by bakers in France as St. Honoré’s Day.

In honor of St. Honoré’s Day in 2024, La Poste, the French postal service, issued a unique stamp featuring the iconic baguette. This stamp is particularly special because it is a scratch-and-sniff stamp. The ink used contains microcapsules that release the fragrance of a freshly baked baguette when rubbed by the customer.

In 2022, the French baguette was granted UNESCO heritage status, a testament to its cultural significance and enduring legacy.

I am fortunate to possess this special stamp - both on the cover and in mint condition.

18th April : World Heritage Day

Heritage talks about our history, our pride, our culture, our civilization, and more.  When there is no technology, lack of access to raw materials, and less manpower, our ancestors built many immortal architectural assets.  While many are resting under the soil because of natural calamities and war, some are still standing tall.  It is our duty to protect this history at any cost.  On realizing this on18th April 1982, The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) organized a symposium in Tunisia and suggested that day should be celebrated as a World Heritage Day all over the world to promote culture and heritage simultaneously.  In 1983, this date was adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) during its 22nd General Conference and since then April 18th is celebrated as World Heritage Day or International Day for Monuments and Sites.  

As an Indian, I am proud that we have plenty of monuments that are standing tall for more than 1000 years.  On this World Heritage Day, let's take a pledge to save and restore the assets left for us by our ancestors.

Though we have countless monuments, I am concerned by the fact that there are not as many stamps on heritage as there are on politicians by India Post.  Among a few stamps, that I am sharing here is, the 2020 UNESCO logo-shaped miniature sheet with 5 cultural heritage sites. 

UNESCO WHS Miniature sheet

India Post issued a  set of six stamps and a miniature sheet on Hill forts of Rajasthan on 29th December 2018. 

This is the second Odd shaped Miniature sheet issued by India post.  It is in the shape of the UNESCO logo.

This is the first set in UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India series.  

Denominations: Three 12 Rs and three 5 Rs.

The stamps depict forts of Amer, Kumbhalgarh, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer, Gagron and Ranthambhor.

21st February: International Mother language Day

In 1999, UNESCO meeting emphasized the importance of the mother tongue and the need to preserve the heritage and cultural diversity related to the mother tongue. There are more than 7000 languages spoken all around the world. Except few hundred most of them are almost going to be extinct because of globalization.

In 1952, 21st February Bengali students of various Universities and Colleges rose up against the Pakistan's advocation of Urdu as the sole National language(In 1952, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan and it was called East Pakistan).  They protested against this order and asked for inclusion of Bangla, their mother tongue as one of the two National Languages of the then Pakistan. When they were marching near the High Court, Dhaka few students were shot and killed by the police.

To honour those Bangladeshi martyrs, UNESCO decided to observe 21st February as the "International Mother Language Day" (IMLD).  Since 2000, this day is observed as the IMLD all around the world to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity.  Not only that, UNESCO announced 2008 as a International year of Languages.

Every year UNESCO observes this day with focus on some theme.  In 2013 the theme was "Books for Mother Tongue Education" and 2014 it was "Local languages for global citizenship: Spotlight on Science".  For 2015, the theme is "Inclusion in and through education:  Language counts" in line with  Nelson Mandela's quote "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart".

 The above stamp issued in the year 2010 has not directly related to the Mother language Day but the background of the stamp shows  four languages (including my Mother Language) Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, which are called Dravidian languages.  

International Year of Crystallography: Liechtenstein

UNESCO names each and every year  based on specific theme and year 2014's 

theme is Crystallography. To commemorate Crystallography year Liechtenstein Post issued two stamps on 1st September 2014 based on metamorphosis of crystals. 

Crystals are nothing but minerals and plays important role in various field of science.  Minerals takes thousands of years to grow as crystals.  Metamorphosis is a complete change of form, structure, appearance, character etc in a person, animal or a thing. CHF 1.00 shows metamorphosis I and CHF 2.00 shows metamorphosis II.  With the aid of a free app (SEPAC Stamps) the postage stamps can be scanned and the metamorphosis of the crystal can then be observed by means of a video animation by the artist Bianca Violet. The stamps are issued by the means of a multi-stage stamping process and it is coated with UV gloss.