Sunday, October 8, 2017

Diwali


Diwali - the Festival of Light - will be held from October 19 - 23. Its main theme is triumph of light over darkness. The main festival night coincides with the Hindu new year during the dark night of the new moon in the month of Karttika (October-November) Traditionally there are fireworks, and small clay oil lamps are lit (in India) and candles are lit (in Canada). This can be seen in the stamps with the Indian issue on the left and the Canadian one on the right.


The festival is also celebrated by Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.
The only times that fireworks are allowed on residential property is Victoria Day, Canada Day, New Year's Eve and Diwali. Three years ago, on Diwali night, there was a massive fire that destroyed two homes and caused extensive damage to neighbouring homes in a community near me and the cause was determined to be improper use of fireworks. 

Canada Post is hailing this as an historic first ever joint issue with India and both countries are issuing each version. 

H - Hindu
I - India
J - joint issue

Join us for more stamps at Sunday Stamps

13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I really like these ones. and it's interesting when the two countries' stamps complement each other.

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  2. So nice to post the three letters at once, h, i and j!
    And such a pity of the fire... I hope people will make safe use of fireworks this year and all coming years!

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    1. I was happy when I realized I could combine them all!
      There has been talk of trying to ban the fireworks altogether, but I think that might be near impossible to enforce.

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  3. The USA has issued a Diwali stamp also.

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  4. I must confess that I new nothing about Jains before so this post has widened my knowledge again.

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  5. I'm amazed that you created three letters out of one stamp!

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    1. my sense of order would not allow me to actually miss a letter.
      but I was amazed, too!

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  6. The colour of the stamps is just great.
    In my region (East of Spain) we use fireworks for almost everything. I can't see how people would celebrate without them! ;-)

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    Replies
    1. there was a time when we only had personal fireworks on Victoria Day - it was often to referred to as 'firecracker day' when I was a kid.

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  7. Lovely stamps, I like the subtle change of colour. I think Leicester's Diwali festival is considered the biggest of the ones here with thousands of lights and of course fireworks.

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