Magyar Posta is celebrating Christianity’s most important feast, Easter, by issuing a definitive stamp. This year, the self-adhesive stamp with no value indication bearing the inscription “Domestic”, the first day cover and the postmark show graphic compositions related to Easter designed by the graphic artist Gábor Márián. The new stamp was produced by Codex Értékpapírnyomda Zrt. The new issue will be available from Filaposta, philately specialist services, certain post offices and Magyar Posta’s online webstore from 20 February 2024.
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus and is the most important feast in the Christian calendar. However, the folk traditions associated with the holiday pre- date Christianity, going back to when the equinox, together with rebirth and fertility, was celebrated. The egg, like the rabbit, has been a fertility symbol since ancient times. Rabbits, due to their large number of offspring, were regarded as a symbol of the increasing fertility of the soil at the time of the spring equinox. The Hungarian word for Easter húsvét literally means ‘partaking of meat’, i.e. the end of Lent, but the English and German (Ostern) terms have a very different origin. In ancient Germanic mythology, Ostara (Oestre or Eastre) was the goddess of spring and fertility, and the best friend of children. The story goes that the goddess turned one of her birds into a rabbit to amaze the children. This rabbit laid brightly painted eggs, which the goddess gave to the children.
The Easter Bunny is a figure closely linked to the holiday and is part of children’s folklore: children believe it brings them gifts in secret. In Christian culture there is a custom of sending postcards, frequently depicting the Easter Bunny. Before Easter, chocolate eggs and soft toy bunnies are popular products in the shops. The main motif of the stamp and the postmark of the first day cover is the Easter Bunny, while a composition evoking springtime adorns the first day cover.
