Posti will release this year's Easter stamps on February 28. We will also add new stamps to the Endangered Animals series, which is made in cooperation with WWF Finland.
Susanna Rumpu and Ari Lakaniemi have designed the 2018 Easter stamps. The stamps depict children's Easter celebrations as they are today in Finland: a mix of the eastern and western traditions.
In eastern Finland, children traditionally knocked on people's doors on Palm Sunday, offering to bless their homes with their twigs in return for treats.
In western Finland, children dressed up as witches and collected treats on Easter Saturday.
The themes on the three stamps are a little boy dressed as the Easter Bunny, children preparing to present traditional rhymes at people's doors to receive treats, and a little witch with her treats. The Easter stamps by Rumpu and Lakaniemi highlight the bright colors of the children's clothes and decorated twigs.
The Finnish Easter traditions have been well represented on postcards and stamps over the years.
- Easter eggs, chickens and roosters mix and mingle in the illustrations. Bunnies, Easter food, willow twigs, witches and the traditional celebrations are common themes on postcards. The Easter Bunny symbolizes fertility because of the animal's high reproduction rate. Nature themes are also popular. After all, Easter is the time when nature awakens, yellow flowers bloom and people grow green grass on their windowsills, says Helena Pärssinen from the Postal Museum.
The Fresh and Healthy stamp sheet contains 15 domestic no-value indicator stamps.
Posti will continue the Endangered Animals stamp series in cooperation with WWF Finland. The second publication in the series features arctic animals: the arctic fox, salmon and the snowy owl. The stamps have been designed by Petteri Mattila.
For example, the arctic fox has become threatened, in particular, because the fox has spread to northern mountains. Global warming is a possible reason for this. The latest confirmed finding of a litter in Finland dates back to 1996. Salmon are threatened by overfishing and the warming of waters: salmon eggs and young salmon do not survive in warm temperatures.
- It is great that we can raise awareness of endangered species in cooperation with Posti, says Anne Brax, Communications Director at WWF Finland.
All stamps available for sale are featured in Posti's online shop: www.posti.fi/goshopping.
