Today is World Postal Day, the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, and a day to celebrate the role of the postal sector in our every day lives. The date October 9^th was declared as World Postal Day in Tokyo in 1969, in the 16^th Universal Postal Union Congress.

Historically, postal services meant individuals who travelled large distances either by foot or on horseback, delivering important messages from village to village. Although the role of postal services has dramatically changed in the digital era, the role of postal services is still vital in many remote areas of the world. Even in areas with a high level of access to digital communication, postal services are important for distributing goods bought from online stores.

Every year, the Universal Postal Union, together with UNESCO, organizes a letter-writing campaign for all children under the age of 15. Each year, all letters for this competition must be written and sent before April 30^th. This year’s theme was “Write a letter to an athlete or sports figure you admire to explain what the Olympic Games mean to you.”

In addition, each year postal services in individual countries may issue special postage stamps to mark the achievements, ideals, and to celebrate the history of postal services. These postal stamps are often of high interest to philatelists and collectors.

Here are some examples of World Postal Day stamps from along the years:

 

 

Tags: postal services, stamp, universal postal union, World Postal Day

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2012 at 10:30 am and is filed under about cross-culture, cross-cultural communication, days of significance, General, pictures . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.