New issue dates for two U.S. holiday stamps

By Michael Baadke

The United States Postal Service has announced new issue dates for two of its previously announced holiday stamps.

The Kwanzaa forever stamp will be issued Oct. 1 with a 12:30 p.m. first-day ceremony at the MOJA Art Festival in Marion Square, 329 Meeting St., Charleston, S.C.

The Kwanzaa stamp, with original artwork by Synthia Saint James, marks the 50th anniversary of the holiday, which was first celebrated in 1966 as a non-religious festival of community and culture for African Americans.

The Florentine Madonna and Child Christmas forever stamp will have its first-day ceremony Oct. 11 at 12:15 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art, West Garden Court, 6th St. and Constitution Ave., in Washington, D.C.

The Christmas stamp features a 15th-century tempera-on-panel painting in the Widener Collection at the National Gallery of Art. The artist is identified simply as “a follower of Fra Filippo Lippi and Pesellino.”

A second traditional Christmas stamp with a Nativity scene is currently scheduled to be issued Oct. 6 in New York City, along with a new Hanukkah forever stamp. On the same day, four forever stamps called Holiday Window Views will also be issued in New York City.

A forever stamp marking the Diwali holiday is planned for Oct. 5.