Postcrossing Blog

Every year on September 21st, the International Day of Peace is celebrated around the world. It’s a reminder that peace isn’t just the absence of conflict, but something we actively build in our daily lives, in the way we treat ourselves, our neighbors, our communities, and the planet. Small gestures of kindness, understanding, and cooperation add up, like stitches in a fabric, creating something stronger and more beautiful together.

This year’s theme for the International Day of Peace is Act Now for a Peaceful World. It’s a call to remind us that peace isn’t something abstract or far away: it’s built through our daily choices and actions. From standing up against unkindness, to listening to voices different from our own, to volunteering in our communities, each of us can play a part.

This year, several postal administrations joined forces to celebrate peace in a very tangible way: through a special embroidered postage stamp. The “Dove of Peace” stamp is literally stitched out of thread by the Austrian embroidery house Hämmerle & Vogel, and features a dove carrying an olive branch. It’s being issued jointly by postal services from Åland, Armenia, Austria, Barbados, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the three offices of the United Nations.

More than just a philatelic novelty, the embroidered Dove of Peace stamp is meant as a symbol and a commitment. Like embroidery, peace requires patience, daily effort, and care. And through the vast network of the postal system, this little dove can fly around the world carrying its message of hope and unity.

To celebrate this initiative and World Peace Day, Austria Post and Liechtenstein Post have kindly offered us 20 of these embroidered stamps to give away (10 from each country).

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below sharing a small act of kindness or gesture of peace that has brightened your day recently. Comments will be opened until October 5, at which point we’ll draw 20 winners at random and have one of these special stamps mailed to them.

On this World Peace Day (and every day!), may our small acts of kindness and connection (like a postcard, a smile, or a shared story) add up to something bigger!

What is an address, really? What does it contain? For most of us, it’s just a number and a street name — a practical and short format that guides mail to a specific destination. But in some places, like Costa Rica, addresses are more like giving directions, in a way to combines memory, poetry, and community. Instead of “123 Main Street”, you might be sending a postcard to an address that looks like “100 meters south of the church, across from the old tree”. Sometimes the landmarks are not even there anymore, but their memory still guides postcards and people home.

María Luisa Santos and Carlo Nasisse made a short film, Direcciones, exploring how Costa Rican addresses weave together all these different elements, keeping alive the traces of landmarks that once existed and the stories of the people who lived around them.

For us, who depend on addresses to connect strangers around the globe, it’s a beautiful reminder that behind every line on an address there’s also history, loss, poetry and love for a place.

PS: If you’re interested in the topic, check out this previous video explaining the Japanese addressing system!

Remember last year, when we invited you all to poke your local libraries to join the World Postcard Day? Some of you did, and we later saw pictures of many nice library events!

This year, we’d love to see even more libraries of all kinds join the fun. Whether it’s your local library, a school library, or even a Little Free Library in your neighborhood, putting up a poster and sharing some postcards there is the perfect way to invite visitors to celebrate the day! All you need is a nice basket, a stack of postcards, and one of our printable pamphlets (updated in this year’s World Postcard Day’s color!) to get people inspired.

In previous years, we’ve also mentioned children and school activities but postcards can also bring a lot of joy to places like elderly centers and retirement homes. Organizing a small postcard-writing or postcard-making workshop can be a nice, low-intensity activity for seniors, giving them the chance to do some crafts, share memories and connect with loved ones.

If you don’t work in such a place but know of one nearby, you can still brighten someone’s day by writing a few postcards to residents on October 1st! We really encourage you to suprise the seniors with a few nice postcards, sharing some stories and well wishes — we’re sure it’ll make their day!

Whether it’s a big library or a nursing home, postcards have the power to create connections everywhere. So why not make World Postcard Day an excuse to spread a little more kindness in the world?

And as always, we’d love to see what you come up with — so please share your plans and photos with the community. 😍 Besides sending some postcards on Postcrossing, who will you be writing to on World Postcard Day?

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!

The year’s flying by, but for now the summery weather is still with us here in the UK, and I’m looking forward to a few more sunny bike rides before I have to figure out where my jacket went and start thinking about warm gloves! So while I’m still holding onto summer, I’ve picked a prompt that seems appropriate:

I actually find it hard to pick favourites most of the time—and I have a solid runner up I really must mention—but my favourite song of the last few years always makes me think of summer: it’s Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer’s “Tanglewood Tree”. It always brings up such pictures in my head: “Young lovers in the tall grass with their hearts open wide / When the red summer poppies bloom…” (You can check out the full lyrics here.)

But in justice to another favourite, let me put in a word for the Cowboy Junkies’ “Crescent Moon” (lyrics), which I really like to sing along to: “Raise your eyes to a moonless sky / And try to wish upon a rising star…”

There are dozens of other songs I could mention (especially old favourites), if I had the space and time and didn’t think it’d get boring, but these two are ones I came across rather randomly, which stuck with me and to me for the last few years. So it seems like an excellent theme for something to write on your postcards this month—there should be plenty to say for a lot of us, especially if you’re as indecisive as I am about what your favourite might be! Feel free to use that as a nudge if you’re stumped, or tell us all about your favourite songs in the comments here!

The Postcrossing Forum is a big and lively place, full of different corners where postcrossers connect, share tips, and have fun together. For newcomers, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to know where to start… so we thought it would be nice to highlight some of its sections in a series of blog posts, giving everyone an easier way to explore and join in. To kick things off, here’s an introduction to the Spread the Joy section by Clarisse (aka CStar9), a fellow postcrosser who knows it well!

Shortly after beginning my Postcrossing journey, I discovered the Forum. There’s a lot to love there—especially for newbies experiencing the slow wait between official cards—but for now I’ll focus on one corner of the Forum that I’d recommend to everyone.

Spread the Joy is a caring place where postcrossers make requests for postcards for loved ones who need a little cheering up, who are celebrating a special milestone, and more. Often, the person making the request will send a thank you postcard to those who contribute.

Over the past several years, I have posted two requests. Both times, the outpouring of love from the Postcrossing community has made a real difference for the people who received the cards.

I now visit Spread the Joy weekly, and collected some opportunities for you to spread the love below. This is a gentle nudge to consider watching the Spread the Joy corner for future posts that might resonate with you.

Note that if you haven’t been active on the forum before, you’ll need to browse around a little bit first, to “level up” your account and get access to this part of the forum. It’ll be worth it!

• Skittykitty (USA) is collecting postcards for her husband, who is undergoing cancer treatment. He is interested in music, anime, manga, video games, horror movies and books, military history, local myths and legends. (See the original request.)
• Anirudhpostcollecter (India) requests postcards with nice wishes for his high school teachers as a token of appreciation for their dedication, guidance, and hard work. Help him make their Teachers’ Day special! (See the original request.)
• letterin (Uganda) is requesting postcards – and any other expressions of support – for youth at a children’s home he founded in Uganda – called St. Dorothea Kinderheim – for children in the Masaka region who have lost parents to COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS. (See the original request)



• Esteparia (Spain) is gathering postcards, written in English or Spanish, for her niece who will turn 13 years old in March. She’d like to introduce her to the many different countries of the world! (See the original request.)
• Kyylie (Canada) is collecting mail for their grandma who loves cooking and baking, and has had a challenging few years. Especially welcome are any recipe cards, food/cooking/baking-themed postcards, an envelope of recipes you love, or a postcard sharing a famous local dish! (See the original request.)
• Volvomom (U.S.A.) is a teacher looking to connect with other teachers anywhere in the world with students who speak Spanish or are learning Spanish. She would like to facilitate a Spanish-language classroom postcard exchange in the upcoming school year (See the original request.)
• BlueMeeple (U.K.) is collecting postcards for her mum, who is enduring a long, slow, and frustrating recovery from a knee operation. Her mum enjoys images of flowers, art, the colors blue and turquoise, Lego, Russian dolls, illustrated animals, handmade cards, religious art, and book covers. (See the original request.)
• mohansn (India) is a hobbyist nature photographer who loves to send cards to local libraries and bookstores to thank them for their service to the community. He’s not looking for cards from you, but rather seeks your recommendations of a local, quaint (not famous) library or bookstore that he should send a card to. (See the original request.)
• Kimberlly_Carvalho (Brazil) will celebrate her 21st birthday in September. 2025 has been a difficult year for her, and she’s looking for postcards with extra cheer to help her celebrate her special day! (See the original request.)

Interested in spreading some joy? You can navigate directly to the original request in the Forum, or message me (@CStar9) or the original poster for more information and the mailing address.

What do you think? Have you had an experience with these sections of the forum? Are there other opportunities you’ve found online to spread snail-mail joy, such as https://loveforourelders.org/ or https://www.moreloveletters.com/? Leave a comment below to let us know — 5 commenters will be randomly selected for a postcard giveaway from the new set, Most Fascinating Museums, this time next week.