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POLONICA |
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The Polish Post will introduce into the market four stamps from the series "Polonica", which are to be continued during the following years. The most important Polish cultural places located abroad are rendered in the said stamps. FDC envelopes will be for sale on the first day of introducing the stamps. They will have a special date seal applied in the Post Office Warszawa 1. |
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CHRISTMAS |
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The Polish Post will introduce into the market four stamps from the series "Christmas". Figures of angels and first words popular carols are placed on individual stamps: On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold first day envelopes (FDC) with a special date seal in the Post Office Warszawa 1. |
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Tragedy of heroes of the Fighting Poland |
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The Polish Post will introduce into the market a stamp in the form of a block "Tragedy of heroes of the Fighting Poland" on October 21st. Thus, we would like to commemorate the memory about the especially tragic generation that had to make the biggest sacrifices while fighting to defend Poland during the Second World War. The liberation from the German occupation did not mean the end of the drama for them. Those who survived it, were considered during the Stalinist terror to be enemies and dangerous by the authorities. They could object the strives to subjugate the Polish nation to interests of Moscow. There were applied especially brutal methods of extermination against them. And finally nowadays we can honour them and accept their justice. An FDC envelope will be for sale on the day of introducing the stamps into the market in the Post Office Warszawa 1. | ||||
The 15th anniversary of the death of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko |
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Father Jerzy Popiełuszko was born on September 14th, 1947, in Okopy villate, in the Białystock province. He was ordained by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński in Warsaw on May 28th, 1972. Apart from the parish works, he was engaged in the ministration of the people of work in his parish of Stanisław Kostka. During the Martial Law, he had monthly masses for the Motherland which were very popular among believers. He referred to moral and political problems in his sermons, he spoke about the freedom and dignity of people. This is why, he was attacked and persecuted by state authorities and the propaganda. On October 19th, 1984, when he was coming back from his ministration work in Bydgoszcz, he was kidnapped in Górsk near Toruń by officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and bestially murdered. He was buried on November 3rd, 1984, at the Church of St. Stanisław Kostka. The funeral of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko was attended by several hundred thousand persons and it was transformed into a big patriotic manifestation. A trial for his beatification was started in 1997. His cult tomb is a place of pilgrimages of the believers. FDC envelopes will be for sale in the Post Office Warszawa 1 on the day of introducing the stamps into the market. | ||||
150th anniversary of the death of Fryderyk Chopin |
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The Polish Post will introduce a postal stamp from the joint Polish-French issue at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of Fryderyk Chopin on October 17th. The joint stamp represents a pen portrait of Chopin of 1841 made by George Sand. The original drawing got lost in Warsaw in 1944. The amateur portrait was highly appreciated and liked by the composer, as he considered it to be ideal from the point of view of the representation of the face. The designer of the stamp showed the artist's portrait against the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The Chopin family used to live there, in the left wing of the building. Moreover, there was placed the composer's signature and the date 1810-1849 on the stamp. Thus, the connections of the artist with Poland and France were stressed. Contrary to Liszt, contemporary for him, Chopin died at a young age, but left a very rich and versatile output. His mother taught him to play the piano when he was a small child. His rapid career started in Warsaw, where he was born in 1810 as a son of a Polish woman and a French man from Lotaryngia. He showed an exceptional talent for music very early. He gave his first concerts when he was 8. On November 2nd, 1930, after a series of farewell concerts, he left Warsaw and went to Vienna, Salzburg, Munchen, and Stuttgard, and then to Paris. He stayed there permanently since 1831 and achieved a European fame. During the first years in Paris, he developed vivid concert activities, but later on he concentrated on composing. However, the didactic activities constituted the basis of his existence. He was ideally and socially connected with the avantgarde of the world Romanticism (Liszt, Berlioz, Schumann, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Heine, Balzac, Delacroix, and others) due to his profession. He was also acting among the aristocrats. He met George Sand in the saloons in Paris and they constituted a couple for many years. They went to Majorca together in winter 1838/39. In 1848, Chopin had his last public concert in London. He died one year later, on October 17th, in Paris. FDC envelopes will be for sale on the first day of introducing the stamps. They will have a special date seal applied in the Post Office Warszawa 1. | ||||
World Day of the Post
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There is a 125th anniversary of the World Postal Union - UPU (Union Postale Universelle). The Polish Post shall introduce a stamp representing the logo of the union. It is a monument erected in 1909, made by Rene de Saint-Marceau. It represents the Earth Globe with five forms turning around it (symbolizing five continents), handing over letters. The symbolic character of the monument was adopted to be an emblem of the Union. It appeared on the cover of "Union Postale" in 1951 for the first time and it was used on envelopes and official documents of UPU. The World Postal Union is an organization that was founded to establish and determine rules of the international co-operation between national postal administrations. The chief director of the Post of the United States of America, Montgomery Blair, undertook an initiative to organize the first international postal conference in 1862, which was supposed to solve the problem of a joint system of fees. Representatives of 15 countries from Europe and America came to Paris. They discussed main rules referring to the international exchange of parcels. Unfortunately, the conference in Paris did not lead to the foundation of the union. Another initiative, this time of a high postal official of the German Confederation, Heinrich von Stephan, undertaken in 1868, referred to the need of an establishment of a base of the General Union of the Post, grouping European countries, some countries on the Mediterranean Sea, as well as America. The project was realized as late as in 1874, when 22 founding countries signed the Bern Treaty. The treaty ensures sovereignty and independent of national postal administrations, eliminated barriers that posed a threat to postal parcels within political and territorial borders of individual states. It précised rules of the functioning of the most important postal services connected with sending letters, postcards, magazines, etc. During the following congress in Paris in May, 1878, where 22 member countries participates, there was adopted the name Union Postal Universelle (UPU) utilized till the present time. The World Postal Union quickly won a respect among all countries of the world. During the 20th congress in Washington it had already 169 members. Poland joined it in 1919 as the 77th member. Delegates of the Polish Post participated in the sessions of the 7th Congress of UPU in Madrid in 1920 for the first time. On the day of introducing the stamps into the market, there will be sold first day envelopes in the Post Office Wrocław 1. |
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