Diwali - Festival of lights

Diwali - the festival of lights, is of course India's biggest festival.  But it is celebrated in many countries.  Though Indonesia is a Muslim-dominated country, Diwali is celebrated on Bali island where most of the population is of Indian descent.  In Fiji, this day is a national holiday, as there are many Hindus living in this Oceania country.  It's a national holiday day in Mauritius and Malaysia too. Singapore and Sri Lanka also celebrate Diwali with great enthusiasm.

Diwali celebrations are catching up in the western world too.  Canada issued many stamps for the Diwali festival.  In the USA, since 2021 it is a federal holiday.  

Here is a greeting to everyone on this wonderful occasion.  Fairy lights are set up and firecrackers are burst.  It is an occasion that one must witness at least once in their lifetime.

Below are some of the stamps issued on the Diwali theme from my collection,

Modica Chocolate Industry - QR code Italy stamp

 Modica Chocolate Industry - QR code stamp

Every stamp tells a story and they are issued for a reason.  Same way, the below stamp also tells a sweet story of the Italian Modica PGI Chocolates.  It was issued on 15th October 2020 by the Italian post.  The value of the stamp is 'B' which is equal to € 1.10.

What makes Modica Chocolate special? Modica Chocolate is mainly made with cocoa butter, naturally present in cocoa beans and sugar mixed in a cold-working process(ingredients are never heated above 45 C). The cold-working process keeps sugar crystals whole in the chocolate bar.  All the beneficial properties of cocoa are kept intact.

Modica chocolate is the first and only PGI chocolate, a mark of origin and protection of typical European Community products.

The stamp has many elements like the antique clock tower of  Modica adjacent to the castle (constructed around 1725 and needs manual winding in an old-fashioned way, but still working), an artisan preparing chocolate, cocoa beans, and Modica chocolate bars. On the top left the trademark of the Protected Geographical Indication and “Cioccolato di Modica”.  But the one that attracted me most is the QR code at the right side top.  Usually, the QR codes take us to the postal website, But my intuition told me to scan the QR code, and surprisingly it took me to the below Youtube site, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awa_uvX57TE

The video shows how Modica chocolate has been made.  I am lucky to get this stamp on the cover as well as in mint condition for my Odd and unusual stamps collection.  

Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkBASEjjw5V/

Fourth Saturday, September - World Rabbit Day

4th Saturday of September - World Rabbit Day

International Rabbit Day is celebrated on the fourth Saturday of September every year.  It was founded in 1998 by The Rabbit Charity in the U.K., and it became a significant day to celebrate and spread awareness about rabbit protection and conservation.

In their natural habitats, rabbits serve the two main functions of keeping plant life in check and providing food for carnivorous predators.  Because they can eat a wide variety of plants. Populations of rabbits play an important role in keeping fast-growing weeds and plants from overgrowing. In recent years its population has declined due to several factors including habitat transformation and viral diseases. 

Do you know, Rabbits perform an athletic leap, known as a 'binky' when they're happy-performing twists and kicks in midair.

Evolution of Flight - Amritpex

 

Evolution of Flight 

South India Philatelists' Association conducted a National level stamp exhibition from August 13th, 2022 to August 15th, 2022.  I participated in that exhibition and won a bronze medal.  Thanks a lot to all the friends who have helped me with material and knowledge.  Long way ahead, hope to do better in future exhibitions.

World's first flight across South Atlantic

 World's first flight across South Atlantic

Pilot, Naval Lieutenant aviator Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral (1881-1924) and navigator rear admiral Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho (1869-1959) successfully completed the World's first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic on June 1922, from Lisbon, Portugal to Recife, Brazil.  They covered 8383 kilometers in 62 hours and 6 minutes.  They departed on the 30th of March and reached on the 5th of June.  As they realized that the journey would require landing on the sea, they flew in British-made floatplanes - the Fairey III biplane. 

In May 1919, Albert Cushing Read(1887-1967) commanded a crew of five on the Curtiss NC-4 flying boat, the first aircraft ever to make a transatlantic flight with 6 stops on the way.  

A.C.Read reached this milestone a couple of weeks before Alcock and Brown's non-stop flight, and eight years before Charles Lindbergh's first solo non-stop flight. Albert Read flew from New York, the USA to Plymouth, England.  On the way he stopped at Lisbon, Cabral was part of the group that greeted him.  This incident was the inspiration for Cabral.

Helicopters

 Helicopters

Although most people believe that the Russian inventor, Igor Sikorsky invented the helicopter, it was actually a French engineer by the name of Paul Cornu who designed and flew the first successful rotary-winged aircraft in Normandy, France in 1907.

I am looking for a 2008 S.Tome E Principe miniature sheet

Near Lisieux in northern France in 1907, Monsieur Cornu became the first person to (ever so briefly) pilot an airborne rotary-wing, vertical-lift aircraft. The rotorcraft (using an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift) from Cornu’s own design was a twin-rotor job,  the blades rotating in opposite directions which neutralized the torque. M. Cornu’s craft levitated about 1.5 meters off the ground, hovering for some 20 seconds.  The Cornu ”Ur-copter” wasn’t maneuverable at all (requiring manpower to hold it in position from the ground) and therefore wasn’t practical,  but it is considered to be a forerunner of the modern helicopter.

Etienne Oehmichen, whose early prototypes included vertically-mounted rotors and a tail rotor, allowing it to fly a distance of one kilometre in 1924!  Oehmichen was also the first to carry passengers in his Oehmichen No. 2 helicopter. 

1957 French Inventors "Etienne Oehmichen" stamp I am looking for

By the early 1920s Spanish aviator and engineer  Juan De la Cierva built the autogyro (sometimes called a “windmill plane” or ‘gyroplane’)… his success advanced the understanding of rotor dynamics.

In 1936 Focke and Gerd Achgelis‘ Focke-Wulf Fw-61 smashed existing helicopter records for range and altitude and demonstrated autorotation descent to landing.  This plus a control system much more reliable and robust than earlier rotorcrafts leads many aviation geeks to consider the Fw-61 to be “The world’s first truly functional helicopter”.

Sikorsky is commonly thought of as “The father of helicopters” because he invented the first successful helicopter upon which further designs were based. The VS-300 (commercial name R 4) became the model for all modern single-rotor helicopters.

Sikorsky was credited with developing the first “mass-produced” helicopter. 

The VS-300, the world’s first successful helicopter, is a predecessor of all modern choppers. Igor Sikorsky developed the first practical helicopter and was his own original flight test pilot. The first prototype of course had only one seat, in the center.  He flew on Sept. 14, 1939.

Nikolay Ilyich Kamov was a Soviet aerospace engineer, a pioneer in the design of helicopters, and the founder of the Kamov helicopter design bureau.

Ka-10 1950 Single-seat observation helicopter. NATO reporting name Hat.

Ka-22 Vintokryl 1959 Experimental rotor-winged transport aircraft. NATO reporting name Hoop.

Ka-26 1965 Light utility helicopter. NATO reporting name Hoodlum.

Ka-27 1974 Anti-submarine helicopter. NATO reporting name Helix.

Ka-50 "Black Shark" 1982 Single-seat attack helicopter. NATO reporting name Hokum.

1st September : World letter writing Day

In the late 1990s, Richard Simpkin, an Australian author, artist, and photographer wrote letters to those he considered to be Australian legends. He became excited when these legends responded to him by letter.  In 2005, he penned down his experience of writing letters in the book 'Australian Legends'.  In 2014, he founded World Letter Writing Day.

In this fast electronic world, the habit of writing is slowly vanishing.  One's handwriting reflects their state of mind, education, person's character, and more.  Handwritten letters give emotional bonding between people.  There is even one branch of science that deals with handwriting called graphology.  Graphology is the study of personality through one's handwriting. 

Here are a few interesting anecdotes about the power of 'letter writing': 

An 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell wrote a letter to Lincoln stating that his face is  “so thin,” and would benefit from a beard.  Lincoln had taken her advice to heart and did grow a beard perhaps the most famous one in American history.

India's first Prime Minister, Nehru's letter to his 10-year-old daughter Indira Gandhi, who later became India's first woman Prime Minister not only shows the bonding between them,  But it helped him to teach her about human history and the history of India while he was away on business.  It was published as a book called "Letters from a Father to his Daughter".   Even when we are away, the letters shorten the distance.

The below stamp was issued by Thailand Post in the year 1969

The below stamp was issued by Japan Post in the year 1993