woensdag 28 december 2016

In: from Kazachstan



This beautiful postcard I received from Assel from Kazachstan. The illustration has been made by Svetlana Popova.

On the back nice stamps, and I learn to say 'Hello' in more languages.
And do you notice the tulips on the round stamp? My country, the Netherlands, is said to be a land of the tulips. However, tulips don't originate from our low country. Their origin is in.. the mountains of Kazachstan! Via Persia, China, Turkey and Antwerp the first tulip finally reached the Netherlands in the end of the 16th century.



Thank you very much, Assel!
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6 opmerkingen:

  1. Scriptor Senex29 december 2016 om 05:50

    I never knew tulips were not originally from The Netherlands. One learns so much from blogs!

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  2. Heleen29 december 2016 om 06:22

    Thank you for your comment, John, and I agree, one learns so much from blogs - and the preceding postcards and stamps!

    There is more to say about tulips: if you think that economic bubbles are something of the present times, it is fun to know that already in the 17th century such things happened. In the Netherlands 'thanks' to tulips! We name it 'bollengekte' ((tulip)bulbs mania), you can find more about it on, among others, wikipedia:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

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  3. FinnBadger29 december 2016 om 06:28

    Beautiful stamps, and very informative. There seems to be a lot going on in the circular stamp - do you know anything more about that one?

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    Reacties
    1. Heleen29 december 2016 om 18:05

      I asked Assel - and thanks to social media (instagram) I've the answer already now:
      It is about Nauryz, the national holiday in Kazachstan, around 22 March, at the time of the spring equinox (when day and night become equally long).

      I searched for some more info on the internet and found - among many others - this site:
      https://kazakhstan.orexca.com/nauryz.shtml
      and the dates:
      https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/kazakhstan/nauryz
      and this equinox - celebration of the New Year (which I think a good time for a new year to start: when spring begins!) - is known in many more countries, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz
      and this year it became Unesco cultural heritage:
      http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/nawrouz-novruz-nowrouz-nowrouz-nawrouz-nauryz-nooruz-nowruz-navruz-nevruz-nowruz-navruz-01161

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    2. FinnBadger29 december 2016 om 18:17

      Thanks for all the info! And in early Rome, March was the start of the year before they changed it to January.

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  4. Mail Adventures29 december 2016 om 08:40

    I love it too. Both the postcard and the stamps look very interesting and colourful.

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