The Elements of Nature

 

Date of Issue : 3 October 2013

The Elements of Nature: Air, Earth, Water, Fire

The Hellenic Post issued a nice  set of four stamps featuring four elements of the nature :  air,earth, Fire and water .The stamps are colorful and very appealing.

The four elements have been an object of fascination for science and philosophy since ancient times, when they were at the heart of Greek thought. According to ancient Greek philosophers and scientists, earth, air, fire and water were the fundamental components of matter : everything was formed from these four elements in different proportions and the whole world was made up of them.

 

 

FDC and Mini sheet

There were conflicting principles and theories regarding which was the primary and most important element in the creation of the world. The ancient Greek philosopher Thalis of Miletus (624-546 BC) believed that material bodies were all based on the fundamental element of water. Anaximenes (585-525 BC) on the other hand thought that air was the most important element, and that earth and water were made of condensed air. For his part, Heraclitus argued that fire was the force that moved the world.

Empedocles ultimately came up with the theory that all four elements are essential and that each one has fundamental properties so that every material thing is composed from all four of them .

Club News

World Animal Day

World Animal Day is celebrated each year on October the 4th. It started in Florence, Italy in 1931 at a convention of ecologists. On this day, animal life in all its forms is celebrated, and special events are planned in locations all over the globe. The 4th of October was originally chosen for World Animal Day because it is the feast day of Francis of Assisi, a nature lover and patron saint of animals and the environment. Numerous churches throughout the world observe the Sunday closest to October the 4th with a Blessing of the Animals.

Special cancellation on World Animal Day at Gorakhpur

A special cancellation will be issued today by Gorakhpur Postal Division on World Animal Day.

From our Readers…

Today is World Animal Day. Mr Sanjiv Jain of Dehradun shares here a cover prepared by him  with a special pictorial cancellation for this special day.

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Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli

 

The new issue by Italian post represents a regular stamp in the “Il patrimonio artistico e culturale italiano” (Italian Artistic and Cultural Heritage) series dedicated to the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli.

The stamp depicts an aerial view of the Sacred Hermitage and Monastery of Camaldoli, nestling in the delightful forests of the Apennines between Tuscany and Romagna.

 

The Holy Hermitage and Monastery of Camaldoli is situated in an ancient forest in the Tuscan Apennines. It was founded about 1012 by Saint Romuald, a Benedictine monk, with the permission of Tedald, Bishop of Arezzo. In the monastery of Camaldoli there is a welcoming room, a great hall, and an old style pharmacy. The pharmacy was originally a laboratory where monks studied and worked with medicinal herbs. The precious walnut decor dates back to 1543. The church, meanwhile, was constructed in the Baroque style and contains works by Giorgio Vasari. It was established to deal with the ever-growing number of pilgrims – drawn by good reports of the monks, and for reflection in the middle of the forest.

A few kilometers farther up the mountain is the “Sacred Hermitage”, or Sacro Eremo which is the more ancient part of the foundation. It was personally established by St. Romuald and has served as the heart of both the community and the order, which bears the location’s name.

Club News

Stamp Exhibition in Germany on  “ Nature and Culture ”

From September 13th to September 15th 2013  a philatelic exhibition will be held in the community  Oepfershausen,Germany. Oepfershausen is situated in the rural region of the Nature Reserve Rhön.

The title of the exhibition is "Nature and Culture "  honoring the 20th anniversary  of the Culture Station at Oepfershausen. The exhibition will be held in cooperation between the Philatelic Collector Group Meaning(BSV),

The Staff of  the Nature Reserve Rhön and the community of Oepfershausen with participation of the German  Philatelic Collector Group ARGE ZOOLOGIE. 24 exhibitors from Germany and Italy will be shown 26 exhibits in 45 frames. Two groups of philatelic friends of the Philatelic Collector Group Meiningen from Italy and Poland will be visiting exhibition as guests of the BSV Meiningen.

List of exhibits :

Matthias Reichel/Günter Wölfing(BSV Meiningen) " Viewcards of Oepfershausen" -3 frames, Kurt Gronwald(ARGE ZOOLOGIE) -" Sea cows-the friendly unknown animals"- 1 frame,Wolfgang Beyer(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)- A trip in the land of the birds of paradise"- 1 frame, Ekkehardt Peter(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)-" European Butterflies on European Stamps"- 3 frames,Lothar Brehme(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)-"Rare animals of the Nature Reserve Spreewald"-1 frame, Axel Brockmann(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)-" Pelican-the bird with the big mouth"-1 frame, Jürgen Holzhausen(BSV Meiningen)-"Sandpipers in the Nature Reserve Rhön"-3 frames, G.Schalling(BSV Suhl) " A trip through  the forests and fields" - 3 frames. Heinrich Simmerle(Italy)-" The vine grape and the wine"-1 frame,Maria Egger(Italy)-"The queen of flowers"-1 frame, Dieter Schellenberger(BSV Suhl)-" Orchids of the Nature Reserve Rhön"-1 frame, Anne Brandt(BSV Meiningen-Youth) -" A excerpt of the world of plants in the Nature Reserve Rhön"-3 frames.
Three special pictorial cancellation will be available with Common Snipe, Lady Orchid and 20 years of Culture Station.

Special covers with a cachet of a Ghoat will be delivered during the exhibition from the Culture Station to the post office at the exhibition by a Ghoat. The exhibition will be  interesting and attractive event and congratulations to the Philatelic Collector Group BSV Meiningen for this exhibition.

Copyright and Courtesy : Wolfgang Beyer,Vice Chairman of the German Philatelic Collector Group ARGE ZOOLOGIE, Mail: Wolfgang.beyer1@aol.de

 

Chasing the telegraph

Parth Shastri, TNN | Jul 21, 2013, 03.53 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: HG Wells famously said in the19th century that the cardinal fact in the history of the past fifty centuries has been the scope, pace and precision of inter-communication; everything else is subordinate. Nothing can be truer for the history of the telegraph in India. Started in 1851, the service breathed its last in the country one week ago.

While the SMS generation may be oblivious to how telegraphs shaped the world, right from India's sepoy mutiny in 1857 to World War II which ended in 1945, two philatelists from the city - DhananjayDesai and Ilyas Patel - were intrigued by the service's history. They compiled an encyclopaedic work 'Indian Telegraphs', meticulously tracing individual anecdotes and putting them together in a masterful book.

Desai is a retired businessman and Patel a retired government engineer. Their common passion for stamps and postal paraphernalia led them to telegraph. The book traces the journey of the service from 1851 to 1914 documenting its development into an individual service. The service later merged with the postal department.
"Diving into any hobby opens up many related subjects. The telegraph is hardwired in the history of the country. The British saw the opportunity this 'new' technology offered as an instrument to control a vast country with fewer officers. During the revolt of 1857, the telegraph helped the British mobilize and concentrate troops at crucial times at cantonments in Delhi, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow, ultimately suppressing the revolt. On later realizing that the first wired network had done them in, the rebels destroyed 913 miles of telegraph lines, but the damage was done," says Desai.

India's first experiment with an electric telegram took place in 1839 (see box) after which the service developed in leaps and bounds. Lord Dalhousie paved the way for the Imperial Telegraph Department in 1850. A year later, British India's first telegraph line and office was opened in October 1851, between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour along the busy shipping route on the Hooghly. By March 1854, there were 800 miles of telegraph lines between Calcutta and Agra and this was further connected to Bombay and Madras. Overseas telegraph communication was made possible in 1865 by running cables along the seabed.

Patel says it is difficult to imagine how instrumental these short messages were in shaping the commercial and military history of India. "We searched through 'The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce' and its successor 'The Times of India' for references and found plenty. The service romanced India for more than 160 years and set a number of landmarks in terms of the network, volume and services. It was heartening to see that the service did not die silently thanks to overwhelming public interest," he says.

From Our Readers…

Vipan Kumar Thakur of Chandigarh shares here Picture Postcard depicting a copy of Telegram Sent by Mahatma Gandhi to Tagore on his 80th Birthday.

: Vipan Kumat Thankur – Chandigarh -email : philavpnthakur@rediffmail.com

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New stamp from India…

 

Date of Issue : 3 July 2013

India Post issued a Commemorative Postage Stamp and Centenary Souvenir to mark the 100th Anniversary of the establishment of the Delhi Gymkhana Club on 3rd July 2013.

The Imperial Delhi Gymkhana Club was established on 3rd July 1913 at Coronation Grounds, Delhi for use of the ruling elite comprising of officers of the Indian Civil Service, Armed Forces and Civil Residents of the then Delhi.

Courtesy : Indian Philately Digest

 

New Stamps from Germany

Date of Issue : 1 July 2013

German post issued two stamps within the series “Wild Germany” on 1st July 2013. The first one is dedicated to Berchtesgarden National park, and the second one depicts the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea.

Berchtesgaden National Park is located in the German-Austrian border, southeastern corner of Bavaria, and is the only alpine national park in Germany. Although it wasn’t officially proclaimed National Park until 1 August 1978, the region has a long tradition as a reserve. In 1910 the area of today’s national park was designated as “Berchtesgaden Alps”, in March 1921, it became extension to the “Koenigssee nature reserve”.

Considerations to develop a cable car in the region led the German Nature and Environment organization to call for the establishment of a national park in 1953. In July 1972 the Bavarian state parliament decided to plan a park in the Koenigssee Bavarian Alps Nature Reserve. Since 1991, the National Park Berchtesgaden was recognized by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve core zone.

The Lower Saxony Wadden Sea was three times designated as a special area. On the basis of the German nature conservation law, it is since 1986 part of a national park, where different protection zones of category I to III were set. In 1993, it was also recognized by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. Since 2009, the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Together with the German Wadden Sea National Park Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg and the Dutch Wadden Sea Conservation Area, the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea is one of the largest and most important tidal wetlands of Germany.

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Joint Issue of Slovakia and Korea

 

 

Slovak post Pofis and Korean post have jointly issued a set of two stamps dedicated to the 20^th anniversary of countries’ diplomatic relations and depicting national dance and chant traditions of both countries – Lucnica art ensemble (Slovakia) and Pansori epic chant (Korea).

 

The Lucnica art ensemble is a representative of this cultural heritage. With its activity, artistic craftsmanship and fantasy, inspired by folk tradition, it creates dance and music scenic images with professional art charge while at the same time maintaining the originality of own national culture. During the ensemble’s 65 years of history (first public appearances are dated as far as 1948) more than 2.500 young people, mostly university students, have become its members. Lucnica with its top-class art, beauty, youth and hot temperament has dazzled audience both at home and abroad. A dancing young Slovak couple dressed in a ceremonial folk costume from the Central Slovakia area of Podpolanie represents a motif of the stamp. It is a hand-embroidered folk costume, made by a special technique, so-called “crooked needle”. The folk costumes come from the dance “Zapocinka”.

Pansori is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a vocalist and a drummer. This popular tradition, characterized by expressive singing, stylized speech, a repertory of narratives and gesture, embraces both elite and folk culture. During performances lasting up to eight hours, a male or female singer, accompanied by a single drum, improvises on texts that combine rural and erudite literary expressions. The term Pansori is derived from the Korean words pan, meaning “a place where many people gather”, and sori meaning “song”. Pansori originated in south-west Korea in the seventeenth century, probably as a new expression of the narrative songs of shamans.

Since November 7, 2003 Pansori is a part of the world cultural heritage UNESCO as “Masterpiece of the Oral Tradition and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.

New stamps on Nature Reserve from Czech Republic

Karlstejn  National Nature Reserve

This is the largest protected karst area in Bohemia. It stretches across an area of almost 16 km on the left bank of the Berounka River from Karlštejn and Mořina to Šanův kout and the valley of the Kačák rivulet near Sedlec. Rocky ravines and the Berounka canyon alternate here with rounded and rocky knolls or places of old karst plains.

Remains of fauna from the former sea have been preserved in the limestone and shale, particularly the well-known trilobites. The karst processes have created a complex of caves. The travertine caves at Saint John Under the Cliff are particularly unusual – although not open to the public, they are archelogically valuable. The reserve also contains abandoned quarries which provide a home to many protected or endangered species of plants and animals. The region belongs among one of the most attractive districts of the surroundings of Prague as well as all of Bohemia.

   

New stamps on Karlstejn  National Nature Reserve will be issued on September 4th in the Czech Republic with above cancellations.

Courtesy : Mr.Slavomil Strnad,Semily, Czech Republic and Wolfgang Beyer, Vice Chairman of the German Philatelic Collector Group ARGE Zoologie.

email : Wolfgang.beyer1@aol.de   Orders from philatelists for this issue are welcome.

Modern Pictorial meter cancellation from Germany

Modern METER featuring a scene of Evolution based on Darwin’s theory .The METER is  from the Zoological Garden of the german town Rostock.

Courtesy : Mrs.Margitta Drohla, Rostock,Germany and Wolfgang Beyer, German Collector Group ARGE ZOOLOGIE. email : Wolfgang.beyer1@aol.de 

My recent cover

Courtesy : Wolfgang Beyer - Germany

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