Postcrossing Blog

Every single day Postcrossing lights up thousands of smiles across the world, literally making it a happier place. We are very proud of that and so should you! And today, Postcrossing brings to you an initiative that allows you to create even more smiles through your postcards. Interested? Read on.

On the 10th of May it’s International World Lupus Day, which has the goal of bringing more awareness over this chronic disease that affects over 5 million people worldwide. If you don’t know what Lupus is, here’s a quick summary:

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years. In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs (“foreign invaders, ” like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues (“auto” means “self”) and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.

Lupus occurs nine times more often in women than in men, especially between the ages of 15 and 50, but it can also affect men, children, and teenagers develop it too. To learn more about Lupus, check Wikipedia or the Lupus Foundation of America.

So, how is this related with postcards? The German Lupus Association and Postcrossing have joined efforts around the World Lupus Day, and you can participate too! We call it LupusCrossing – Butterflies are crossing the world and all you have to do is to send a butterfly postcard (butterflies are the Lupus symbol) to the address below to express your support towards Lupus patients on this special day. The goal is to bring worldwide awareness to this problem while at the same time bring smiles to those affected by the disease. You can write on the postcard whatever you want, and you can ask questions about Lupus too.

All received postcards will reach the hands of Lupus patients. In return, the German Lupus Association will send thank you postcards to 3 randomly chosen Postcrossers of each country they receive postcards from so don’t forget to write your address on the card! A photo of the postcards received will appear on their website. Moreover, the German Lupus Association plans to design a roll-up display out of these cards that will be shown throughout the 80 regional groups.

Ready to spark some smiles? Then grab a postcard with a butterfly and send it to:

And don’t forget to check the German Lupus Association website for the progress.

Happy LupusCrossing!

Not so long ago, we talked about the collaboration between Postcrossing and the Singapore Philatelic Museum. Their “A rat’s tale” exhibit to celebrate the Year of the Rat received many postcards about that theme from Postcrossing members related, which were then displayed as part of the exhibit.

This collaboration was so successful that we repeated the request to all Postcrossers for this years “A Cow and Bull Story” show to celebrate the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Ox. And once again, many were very enthusiastic and contributed with postcards to exhibit.

Mishelle at the Museum sent us some photos to share with everyone:

This exhibit will be on display till August, so if you have the chance to be in Singapore, be sure to pay a visit!

While lost on the streets of Singapore a few months ago, we stumbled upon the Singapore Philatelic Museum. Naturally curious of all postal things, we decided to visit!

A tour of the museum provides a fresh insight of the culture and history of Singapore, not only through stamps and correspondence, but also using really interesting interactive displays. There were several exhibitions on display and one about the year of the rat in the Chinese zodiac attracted our attention.

Titled “A Rat’s tale”, it promised “insights into the lives of these commonly misunderstood creatures and discover how rats have made their way into history, literature, and even pop culture”.

We made our way through the games, and then in the middle of the room, we checked out some rat/mouse themed postcards. And as we started to read the postcards, something sounded funny… Most of them mentioned a swap, and some even had familiar names on them like Mount_rushmore, Swan, fragility, aina77 and orange_juice_drinker… Wait, these were sent by postcrossers!!

And then Paulo hit his head and said “But of course! The mouse exhibition!”

You see, about this time last year we were contacted by Mishelle at the Philatelic Museum asking help about setting up this exhibition. We had already forgotten all about it when we entered the museum, and had quite a surprise! And a lot of you participated, as the number of postcards showed:

Thank you everybody, thank you Mishelle for being so nice and setting up this exhibition!

Now, the “Year of the Ox” is approaching in the chinese calendar so… who wants to take part in the next exhibition?

Update: This exhibition is opening soon, so this activity is now closed. Thank you to everybody who sent postcards to the Singapore Philatelic Museum, pictures are coming soon :)

PS – If you celebrate Christmas, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas!