This card was sent by Olga from St. Petersburg, Russia. This is a unique postcard because the back of the postcard is coloured and with an illustration of a group of houses.
The beautiful postcard displays a cartoon of winter scenery. This is a New Year greetings postcard and one of my favourites.
In Russia, the New Year is often grander and even more widely celebrated than Christmas, which takes place on Jan 7. In fact, Russians celebrate two New Years: one on Jan 1 with the rest of the world and one on Jan 14, the so-called "old" New Year. The latter is based on the Orthodox Calendar.
What those in the Western world would call a Christmas tree is considered a New Year's Tree in Russia. Because the Russian New Year precedes Christmas, the tree is typically left up in honour of both holidays. The New Year’s tree is visible in the postcard.
This New Year is called the “new” New Year because it was first recognized after Russia made the switch from the Julian calendar (still recognized by the Orthodox Church) to the Gregorian calendar, which is followed by the Western world. During the Soviet period, the New year was celebrated in place of Christmas; however, Christmas has been regaining importance as a holiday more recently.
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| The centre of Moscow decorated for New year's day. |
Olga has wished me a happy new year. The back of the postcard has
some lettering which reads “Новый год для меня не просто праздник!” and
translates to “New year is not just a holiday for me!”.
She wrote –
“03.01.2019 -3°C St. Petersburg
Hello Vishnu, Happy New 2019! Let love, peace and happiness follow you within this year and forever! All the best, Olga”
Olga had attached 2 stamps. A 10-Ruble stamp depicting the Moscow Kremlin and a 35-Ruble stamp. The 35-Ruble stamp is part of a series of 2 joint issue stamps between India and Russia.
Joint stamp issues are stamps released by two or more postal administrations at the occasion of a common event or anniversary and that are characterized either by a common design or the same date of issue or both.
It portrays the Bhavai dance, a genre of folk dance popular in Rajasthan, India. Men play music, while a woman, dressed in a bright, colourful costume with numerous ornaments, performs the dance, holding 8-9 pitchers on her head. The dance of bhavai is performed at various festivals and weddings. This artistic folk dance is popular not only in India but also abroad.
The postmark is prominently visible on this stamp
and it reads “Санкт-Петербург” and translates to “Saint Petersburg”. It is
Russia's second-largest city after Moscow.