As every year, Correos issues two new stamps to celebrate Christmas.
In these times in which the sending of letters has decreased enormously, Christmas is still the time when we continue to write Christmas greetings, by hand and with a stamp.
The first of the stamps features the Virgin of the Milk from the sculpture known as La Roldana.
The relief represents the moment when a mother breastfeeds her child. This iconography, usually called Virgo lactans or Virgin of the Milk, was very common in the Baroque period, with an important presence both in female enclosures and in private devotion. The composition is completed with the heads of angels at the top and with the two little angels holding the green drapery as a canopy over the main figures.
The second of the stamps depicts a scene from what is known as the Bethlehem of the Rock. The Belén de la Roca is the largest nativity scene in Valencia and the one with the most figures in Spain. It has more than 20 years of history and it is a family project and it is completely handmade.
It is located in the Roca neighbourhood of Meliana. In 1989, Melchor Almela Lagarda, a master nativity scene maker, and Francisco Pascual Albiach, together with a group of friends and family, decided to take part in the nativity scene competition organised by the Peña la Forca and the Meliana Town Council. They won third prize, which encouraged them to continue to expand their work, both in size and complexity. They entered the competition again and won a well-deserved first prize. Each year the nativity scene was dismantled and reassembled, although from 2005 it was definitively installed in its current location.
It currently occupies more than 50 square metres and consists of some 6000 pieces. Each of the figures is modelled with clay and defined with small spatulas. They are coloured by hand and reproduced using plaster moulds.
