USA Postal Service will release a “Forever Stamp on Diwali”: The U.S. Postal Service will honor the blissful Hindu festival of “Diwali” with a Forever stamp.
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The first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony will take place at the Indian Consulate in New York City on October 5, the USPS said. This year, it begins October 29-30.
The stamp features a photograph of a traditional diya oil lamp, its flame glowing in front of a gold background. According to a release by the USPS, the photograph was taken by Sally Andersen-Bruce of New Milford, CT, and designed by Greg Breeding of Charlottesville, VA.
The stamp commemorates the Hindu holiday of Diwali, which begins with the first new moon between mid-October and mid-November. Forever stamps are immune to the future increase in price of stamps, as it is always equal to the current value of a stamp, no matter when it was bought. “Of that, approximately 25 topic suggestions for commemorative stamps are selected by the Committee for the Postmaster General’s approval”, Mark Saunders, senior press relations officer, said in the statement. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced a resolution in Congress a year ago in favor of a Diwali stamp.
The call for a Diwali stamp grew louder.
Congresswoman Maloney introduced two resolution in Congress for the stamp. In 2007, the Indian American community cheered when the US Congress officially recognized Diwali’s significance, and in 2009, President Barack Obama lit the symbolic diya, or Diwali lamp, at the White House.
The campaign by the Indian-American community had been spearheaded by Indian-American attorney Ranju Batra, who secured thousands of signatures for the petitions.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his first visit to the United States, expressed his support for the stamp along with many Indian diplomats in the US. The stamp commemorating Diwali would certainly bolster the spirits of the 3.4 million-strong Indian American community in the U.S., one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic-groups in that country.
Batra said the stamp sends an important message of religious inclusiveness. Given that every other major religion has its own commemorative stamp, she said a stamp for Diwali had been long over-due.
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Rangaswami went on to say that the culmination of their efforts showed a maturation of the Indian American community. The sale of the Diwali stamp could provide the USPS with a sorely-needed revenue surge. There are over 3 million Indian Americans in the US.
