We have reached the end of 2018 as well as A Stamp A Day’s “A Month of Christmas” series which never really strayed from the topic (Kwanzaa is a Christmas alternative and the Apollo 8 mission occurred over the holiday and is notable for its Christmas Eve message from lunar orbit). While I examined a host of traditions which focused more on modern United States … Continue reading Новый Год / Novy God (Russian New Year Celebration)
This Month of Christmas posts on A Stamp A Day has caused me to reflect greatly upon memories of Christmases past, primarily from my own childhood. It isn’t easy being an expatriate living in a country far away from one’s family and the holidays can be a difficult time. I have battled with manic depressive disorder since my teens and forcing myself to focus on … Continue reading A Month of Christmas: Holiday Mail
When I was a kid, I would more often lob a snowball (occasionally hardened in the freezer portion of our refrigerator) from behind some sort of shelter (snow forts, anyone?) that I was to create anything like a snowman. My father would occasionally make one of those while my sister and mother would be swinging their arms and legs in a snow bank creating angel … Continue reading A Month of Christmas: Snow Angels
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, also called Childermas or Innocents’ Day is a Christian feast held on December 28 in the Western Church and December 29 in the Eastern Church in remembrance of the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem by Herod the Great — king of Judea — in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus … Continue reading A Month of Christmas: Childermas, or the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and the Book of Hours
Fifty years ago today, on December 27, 1968, the command module of the United States spacecraft known as Apollo 8 completed its mission at 15:51:42 UTC by achieving splashdown in the North Pacific Ocean, southwest of Hawaii. The mission lasted six hours, three hours and 42 seconds. This was the second manned spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program, launched on December … Continue reading Apollo 8 and Earthrise
There are a number of topics to choose from for December 26 articles. In 2016 and 2017, I chose to write about the Andaman Sea tsunami that affected so many people here (forever changing my life as well) and elsewhere. While I do have a number of stamps (and postal history items) related to this natural disaster, I have enjoyed the positive nature of the … Continue reading The Colorful Celebrations of Kwanzaa
It is now nearing the end of Christmas Day in Thailand where, for the previous twenty-four days, I have posted articles dealing with different aspects of the Yuletide holiday season each featuring an appropriate stamp. Since I just spent the past four days donning a (very hot) Santa Claus suit for party appearances at various local kindergartens, I thought an examination of the most widely … Continue reading A Month of Christmas: Ho! Ho! Ho! The Modern Image of Santa Claus
As I write this, it’s almost 8:00 p.m. Christmas Eve here in Thailand and Santa Claus has already begun his long series of flights delivering gifts to all of the good boys and girls in every corner of the world. This journey, via his technologically-advanced sleigh pulled by a total of nine reindeer (including the famous guide, Rudolph) will cover an estimated 316,899,308 miles (510,000,000 … Continue reading A Month of Christmas: Santa’s Around-the-World Journey by Sleigh on Christmas Eve
A Stamp A Day 