Wednesday, March 23, 2011

New Stamps on Easter

 

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Date of Issue – 1 March  2011

Magyar Posta ( Hungary) issued stamp to commemorate Easter on 1st March 2011.The stamp design uses a reproduction of a work by the textile artist Erzsébet Szekeres entitled Hungarian Golgotha. The stamp’s first day cover is adorned by a detail from another work by the same artist, Lamb of God. The graphic design of the special postmark employs a stylised version of the lamb on the cover.

The word golgotha is derived from the Hebrew gulgoleth, and the Aramaic transcription of this (gulgalta) has been adopted and adapted in modern use. In Greek this is kranion, while the Latin translation calvaria provides the deriva-tion of our word calvary. The word means skull or place of skulls. Originally, it was the name of a hill in a quarry north north-west of Jerusalem, which was a place of execution in ancient times. The name probably refers to the skulls remaining from the executions. According to the Gospels this is the place where Jesus was crucified and buried.

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: Magyar Posta

Easter stamp from Vatican City

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Date of Issue – 21 March 2011

 

The stamp features the central moment of the salvific mission of  Lord ??? the Resurrection ??? as seen in a detail of a wall mural located at the main entrance to the Sistine Chapel. The fresco is perhaps one of the least known of the Sistine Chapel and is a work by Flemish painter Hendrick van den Broeck. It is a copy of an original by Ghirlandaio which was destroyed when the door frame collapsed in 1522. The painting is one the masterpieces of the 1400s alongside the frescoed walls and great paintings by Michelangelo.