Postcrossing Blog

Every year around this time, we write about the EUROPA stamps and the competition to pick the most beautiful one for that year. This year though, the traditional competition isn’t taking place because all stamps share a common design! This is not new, and has happened multiple times in the history of EUROPA stamps, including in the very first issue back in 1956.

Below is 2023's design as seen on the Finnish stamp. The theme of the year is “Peace — the highest value of humanity”:

Every country is using the same design this year, arranged in slightly different ways to match the shape or aesthetics of other stamps in the country. In order to arrive at this design, a contest was run by PostEurop in which the different postal services submitted their interpretations on the topic, and then one was chosen to represent it. The winning entry was created by Linda Bos and Runa Egilsdottir of “A Designer’s Collective”, for POST Luxembourg. About the design, they wrote:

“The world needs a new Peace symbol, uniting all nations. Cultural differences perchance a barrier for a state of Peace. If only mankind could respect each other’s differences by understanding their significance and responding to them with consideration, the world would be a better place. This design shows a visual metaphor for a peacefully integrated, cooperative society in which people embrace each other’s culture. It was inspired by the Celtic Love Knot symbol, with interlocking hearts. The colour palette illustrates all the nations in the world. By adding hands with intertwined fingers, it conveys the message of mutual respect.”

Many other postal services also decided to design a second stamp to pair with this one, and you can see some of those on this forum topic.

While on one hand we’re a little sad that we don’t get to see the usual diversity of designs and interpretations, on the other hand, it’s also heartwarming to see a joint issue. This is how EUROPA stamps started: with a shared design as a symbol of cooperation between European countries. The topic also hails back to the beginning of these stamps, as the designs for the second and third years of the EUROPA series featured peace symbols.

So… what do you think? Do you like the design that was chosen, or would you have preferred if every country had its own unique entry? Aaaaaand, on a different but somewhat related topic, which song do you think will win Eurovision tonight this weekend? 🤔

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Sometimes it’s fascinating to get a little peek into someone else’s everyday life: the really little details like shopping lists and what they have for breakfast. It can vary so much between people, even within the same country or the same family, so it’s always interesting to get a look inside someone else’s fridge—or we think so, anyway!

In my flat, the fridge almost always contains either halloumi or chorizo (along with the usual staples like milk and butter). Sometimes both! Two of my favourite meals are based around chorizo, and I’ll eat pretty much anything with halloumi (we usually fry it, but use it in a few different dishes). When talking about this prompt with Ana, I couldn’t help but evangelise for my current favourite chorizo dish: baked cheesy rice with chorizo and courgette (except that we usually substitute peppers in for the courgettes, as they keep their consistency a little better after being cooked).

Other than halloumi and chorizo, though, we tend to vary our meals each week, since my wife prefers to change things up. I suppose the other most consistent thing in our fridge isn’t actually for us: we have loads of veg for the rabbits, like chicory and coriander. For several years running, our supermarket’s app told us every year that we were the #1 buyers of parsley and coriander at the main store we went to—I’m not surprised, because all three of the buns love some parsley and coriander…

What about you? Do you have anything you try to always keep in your fridge? Feel free to share here in the comments, but also on your postcards this month! Especially if you have any tasty recipes (double especially if you have any good recipes involving chorizo)…

Today is Earth Day, and we thought a good way to celebrate the day would be to tell you about an event held some time ago, where postcrossers came together to help plant a pine forest in central Portugal. Enjoy this sunny report!

After a hiatus of two years due to the pandemic, it was time to get together again to expand Postcrossing’s tiny forest! So in early February this year, a group of postcrossers gathered once more to plant trees and reforest a part of the old Pinhal de Leiria, an historical forest from the 13th century which was mostly destroyed in a disastrous fire some years ago. It will take years and years for the forest to regain its previous splendor… but you know what they say: “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.”

This time, the plot we replanted was in the dunes nearer the Atlantic ocean, which gave it nice views over the sea. (I like to think of all the tiny pine trees growing with a sea view!) All of us moved along the previously plowed rows, taking care not to damage any trees that were already growing on their own. All morning we made holes, put little trees in them and covered them up so that they were protected from the fierce Atlantic winds. Here are some pictures:

We planted around 700 tiny maritime pine trees, also known as “Pinus pinaster”. Maritime pine is a relatively fast grower, and native to the Mediterranean, so it likes our hot summers and rainy winters. It’s also a great tree to hold onto the dunes and help stabilize coastal regions. Talking to the organizers of the reforestation initiative, they told us the seeds that sprouted these baby pines had been sent from the forest that existed here to France before the fire, and were now returning home to be planted here again. Hurray for seed banks!

After a picnic and some coffee, it was time to go back home, with the feeling of a job well done. Maybe something to consider, for a future meeting in your country? We invite you to roll up your sleeves and go for it! 🌲 And if that’s not possible but you’d still like some ideas of things you can do to make this hobby greener, check our Towards a greener planet page! 🌲

PS: All the pictures in this post are by Tetyana (aka tatytrofamets), who did an excellent job reporting on this fantastic day!

Did you watch Sesame Street growing up? It was a big part of our childhood in Portugal, and stumbling on clips with familiar songs and stories is something we’ll never get tired of. This week, we bring you two videos from the US version of Sesame Street which are all about mail and will maybe cause some nostalgia, for those who grew up with them. 😊

First comes “Big Bird & Snuffy Mail a Letter”, which in its funny way helps kids learn the different steps of mailing a letter. You’d think it was easy… but there’s actually a lot to it, especially if you’ve never done it before! With some help from the adults and children of the neighborhood, Big Bird and Snuffy succeed in getting it done:

And here’s another one titled “I am a letter”, from 1970 — a song that is all about mail and mail delivery!

If you watched Sesame Street, did you know these clips? Were they were recreated with local characters in your country’s version of the series? Or, do you remember other clips about mail from TV series you used to watch? We love discovering these, so please do share them with us on the comments!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Learning a new language is a common goal, so we think that HM’s suggestion of sharing what language you’re learning, or the languages you’d like to learn, should be fascinating!

Personally, I speak a little French and always mean to practice: I have a copy of The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) in French, and I periodically open up apps like Duolingo and Clozemaster to practice a bit… but that’s mostly just because that’s the language I learned in school. I know my accent is terrible, and there’s not much reason in my day-to-day life for me to speak any French, so it’s more of a mental exercise than anything.

It’s probably not too surprising though that I’d love to learn to speak Welsh. My wife used Duolingo to get some vocabulary, and is now using an app called Say Something in Welsh to practice more. I haven’t joined in yet, but… it’s tempting! I’d be starting from zero, really (I can count to ten in Welsh, and say a couple of phrases by rote), and I’m not sure I have the time yet. One day!

How about you? What languages are you studying, and which ones would you like to learn? You can share your thoughts in the comments, and/or use it as a prompt for something to write on your postcards!