Sunday Stamps: costumes

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Folk or national costumes'.

In our country there's no such as 'national costume': as far as I know traditional costumes always are local. I think that's the same with traditional costumes in many (most?) other countries.
While looking for suitable stamps for this post, I suddenly realized that there's one thing in common, all-over the world. At least in the countries of which I've seen traditional costumes on stamps: women wear skirts or dresses, and never wear trousers in their traditional costume. Men do, although there are some exceptions, I remember having seen stamps with men wearing kaftans.
As I think trousers more practical, I am wondering why there is lack of trousers in women's traditional costumes.

Nevertheless, traditional costumes look nice, good, and in several countries they are honoured by stamps.

First I'll show you a few Asian stamps:

From Indonesia:



From Malaysia:



From Japan, accompanied by a beautiful postmark (thank you, Hana!):



In European stamps I found this one, from Lithuania:



In the Netherlands traditional costumes depend on the place, city, region, also. Nowadays traditional costumes hardly are worn anymore. Only in a few places you can see some (mainly elder) women wearing it. Putting on the clothes needs a certain amount of patience, and I think that we, in these modern, hurrying days, don't have and take time for this.

Also the Dutch PostNL has honoured traditional costumes: in 2013 they issued a nice serie of five sheets showing traditional clothing stamps.

These are two of them, both from places in the center of our country:



The different locations of Dutch traditional costumes can be recognized by the cap or bonnet. Most well-known, world-wide, is the cap of the costume of Volendam, a fisherman's city in the north west of the Netherlands. Strange enough this famous head wear hasn't been shown in this stamp serie. Maybe in future?

There's an other costume I immediately recognize, not by the cap but by the striking shoulder part: the traditional costume of the city of Spakenburg. You can see this shoulder part on this stamp sheet, and also via this link.



The five stamps also have been united in a sixth stamp sheet:



Although the city of Marken is close to Volendam (in the north-west of the Netherlands), the caps differ a lot.
The other stamps are from places in the center of the Netherlands (Staphorst, Veluwe and Bunschoten-Spakenburg) and from the south-west (Walcheren).

My favourite province, in the east of the Netherlands, alas isn't represented in this stamp sheet serie. Fortunately the cap of this province, Drenthe, has been shown on a previous stamp, issued in 2010 on a stamp sheet on Suriname.

Here you can see two traditional headwears united: the so-called angisa from Suriname (bonnet which shows a message, according to the way it has been folded, and the cap from Drenthe in the Netherlands:



The complete stamp sheet has an other stamp showing traditional costume of Suriname (the koto) and the Netherlands (Spakenburg), and some interesting information about the headwear. You can find the complete stamp sheet via this link.

See more traditional costumes on - and via the links under - the Sunday Stamps blog.

Sunday stamps: musical instruments

Today's theme of Sunday stamps is a very favourite of mine: Music and musical instruments.

Spain has issued several wonderful music stamps. My most favourite instruments are string instruments, so I was very happy to receive these guitar and violin stamps, which were issued in Spain in 2011:



The ones above belong to a serie of four; the others are the lute and mandolin. You can see the complete serie here.
A year later, the Spanish post published the harp, balalaika, sitar, banjo and rebec on stamps. Thanks to Eva I received several of these beauties, but alas I didn't find sufficient time to scan them and post them in this blog now. However, the complete serie you can see in this interesting blog.

From string instruments to percussion instruments.
These were also issued on stamps in Spain, in 2013. More information on the five stamps (of which you see four here) you can read here.



In the Netherlands there has been issued a stamp serie with illustrations by the late Dutch painter Anton Pieck.
One of them shows a man with many instruments, of which the drum is most prominent:



And he plays an accordion-like instrument. There are many other musical instruments who create their tones by air: aerophones or wind instruments.

There's a wind instrument maybe many of us might have tried when we were young (or maybe even have made one!?). It's from all times and all-over the world. You can find pictures of this curious instrument for example here, and here.
On stamps I happened to have received this one from Lituania. Initially I didn't notice that these were musical instruments. But when I looked closer, I read the words 'muzikos intrumentai', and by looking up the words 'molines svilpynes' I learned that these animals indeed are musical instruments: clay whistles.



Other wind instruments are woodwind instruments (like the flute and clarinet), and brass instruments.
The Spanish post also has issued a stamp serie on brass instruments. One of them is the (French) horn:



From Brazil I received this trumpet:



And an euphonium (or tuba?) is shown on a stamp sheet issued by the Dutch post as part of a serie on Dutch cities, in this case the city of Sittard:



(You see I've used the other stamps already...)

A large wind musical instrument - and a typical Dutch one - is the street organ.
The Dutch post issued this Europa stamp in 1981:



Thirty-three years later, in 2014, this stamp sheet has been issued, which is also proposed as entry for the PostEurop 2014 stamp contest.



Many more beautiful stamps on music and musical instruments you can find in Viridian's blog and all links shown there.

Sunday stamps: More Christmas / Holiday stamps

Ook deze zondag zijn kerstpostzegels het thema van Sunday stamps.
Er is trouwens reden voor een feestje: het is de 150e editie van Sunday stamps!

Van bovenstaande postzegel uit Litouwen weet ik niet zeker of het als kerstpostzegel uitgegeven is. Maar de sterren bij het winterlandschap doen vermoeden van wel.

Also this Sunday the theme of Sunday Stamps is 'Christmas or Holiday stamps'. There's a reason to celebrate: today is the 150th edition of Sunday Stamps! Congratulations, Viridian, and all contributors to the wonderful Sunday Stamps site!

I'm not sure if the stamp you see above has been issued for Christmas specificly. But the stars and the wintery scene make me think it has.



Heel bijzonder vind ik deze kerstpostzegel uit Sri Lanka.
Very special, to my opinion, is this Christmas stamp from Sri Lanka.



En hier nog meer Nederlandse kerst- oftewel decemberzegels. Deze zijn van het decemberzegelvel uit 2011.
And here some more Dutch Christmas aka December stamps. These are from the December stamp sheet issued in 2011.



Het postzegelvel uit 2008 vind ik erg mooi, maar helaas heb ik die totaal opgebruikt. Op deze website vind je hem nog. Net als het postzegelvel van dit jaar vormen de afzonderlijke zegels één geheel. En extra leuk is dat er ook postzegels op staan!

The stamp sheet of 2008 I like very much, but alas I cannot show it here as I've used all stamps of it!.. However, if you're interested, you still can find it on this website.
Similar to the 2013 December stamp sheet, also on the 2008 sheet all individual stamps together form one picture. Another nice detail is the fact that there are stamps shown on it, too!



Hierboven nog meer typische december-dingen, op het postzegelvel uit 2003.
En hieronder dat wat overbleef van mijn decembervel uit 2005...

Above some more typical December objects/situations, on the stamp sheet issued in 2003.
Below the remains of the December stamp sheet I used in 2005...



En hieronder het decemberzegelvel van vorig jaar. Sommige mensen vragen zich af waarom op de Nederlandse decemberzegels Noorse brei-ontwerpen staan (zie bijvoorbeeld een van de reacties onder deze blog). Maar ach, dat is natuurlijk ook typisch Nederlands, invloeden van buitenaf. Dat is iets van alle landen en alle tijden, en 't maakt de wereld kleiner èn kleurrijk!
En het was ook pas in 2013 dat er meer informatie bekend is geworden over traditionele Nederlandse (vissers)truien!

And below you see the December stamp sheet of last year, showing Norwegian knitting patterns. Some Dutch people wondered why Norwegian patterns were issued on Dutch stamps, but I think there have been influences from anywhere, everywhere, and it's of all times. That makes the world even more colourful, doesn't it? And not until this year, some more information about typical Dutch knitting patterns became available.