Used Jack O\' Lantern Set of 4. FIRST set, JRA Special Occasions Covers. Limited
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Used Jack O\' Lantern Set of 4. FIRST set, JRA Special Occasions Covers. Limited:
$5.00
These covers are the First in a new line of \"JRA Special Occasions\" covers commemorating unusual tie-ins and events with corresponding U.S. postage stamps. This set of 4 different \'Jack O\' Lantern covers is one of only a handsfull produced. This set was the first design, with subsequent sets showing different placement and color of the lettering. Only two sets of covers with this lettering placement and ink color were produced.
These stamps, the first Halloween stamps ever issued by the U.S. Postal Service, went through the mail and bear a Halloween Day, October 31, 2016 machine cancelled postmark.
The envelopes show minimal wear and markings from going through the mail processing equipment, The cover received the standard bar code markings, and a legible spray-on cancel.
For the serious topical collector, this is a unique and fun addition to your collection. This cover and cancel, the first in the new line of \'JRA Special Occasions\', can not be duplicated.
What you see in the photo is what you will get.
Shipping is Free.
Buy with confidence. I have been an APS member since 1984.Information from the Postal Service:
The Jack-O’-Lanterns Forever stamps will be issued at 11 a.m., Sept. 29 at the Anoka City Hall Plaza in Anoka, MN.[Anoka is about 20 miles north of Minneapolis. —VSC]
In the spirit of Halloween, the U.S. Postal Service issues these delightfully eerie stamps featuring photographs of four different jack-o’-lanterns.
This booklet of 20 stamps features four different photographs of jack-o’-lanterns. The jack-o’-lanterns were carved by Paul Montanari and photographed by Sally Andersen-Bruce of New Milford, CT.
Jack-o’-lanterns have been symbols of Halloween in the United States since the late 19th century, not long after celebrations of the holiday began here. Folklorists trace their name to a tale about a scoundrel named Jack who meets up with the Devil. Perhaps best known as an Irish legend, the story exists in myriad versions in Europe and North America: Jack tricks the Devil in unscrupulous ways that prevent him from going to Heaven but which also infuriate the Devil, who refuses to carry Jack’s soul to hell. With nowhere to go after he dies, Jack forever wanders the earth with a lantern made from a hollowed-out turnip lit by an ember from the fires of hell, a fate that earns him the name Jack of the Lantern.
In North America, native pumpkins proved to be an even more fitting medium for carving than turnips, and jack-o’-lanterns have become emblematic sights at autumn festivals and Halloween events.
Although Halloween itself is now largely a non-religious celebration, it grew out of All Hallows’ Eve, which is the night before All Saints’ Day, an early Christian observance still widely celebrated today. The Middle English word “halwe,” the source of our modern “hallow,” was a word meaning a saint or holy person, which is why this celebration was popularly known in England as All Hallows’ Day. Probably rooted in solemn observances mentioned in historical sources as early as the fourth century, All Saints’ Day was set as November 1 in Rome in the middle of the eighth century and was extended to the entire church in the middle of the ninth century. Later in the Middle Ages, it was followed on November 2 by All Souls’ Day, a time for the living to pray for the souls of the dead, especially those in purgatory. Many historians believe that All Saints’ Day was timed to coincide with Samhain (pronounced “sow-an”), the pre-Christian Celtic harvest celebration that marked the beginning of winter. By the 1500s, All Hallows’ Eve—a name eventually shortened to Halloween—was celebrated in the British Isles on October 31 amid bonfires, costumes, and revelry.
After the Middle Ages, Protestant reformers in England frowned on the Catholic celebration of All Saints’ Day, but Halloween never disappeared as a popular custom, and a dizzying array of related festivals and practices took hold throughout the British Isles. Halloween bonfires were common, but adults and children in Ireland also used the occasion to beg door-to-door for firewood or food, while young people in 18th-century Ireland and Scotland played fortune-telling games to reveal the names of their future spouses.
Brought to North America by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland, Halloween soon became a distinctively American celebration that transcended social boundaries and ethnic origin. In the early 20th century, the holiday was often a time for pranks and rowdiness, but communities and civic organizations worked to rein in those tendencies. After World War II, widespread enthusiasm for trick-or-treating gave the holiday a youthful emphasis, but since the 1970s adults have increasingly joined the festivities once again: a 2014 survey showed that nearly 67 percent of the American population celebrates Halloween in some way.
With customs and traditions that vary widely by community, Halloween now inspires parades and revelry, corn mazes and haunted houses, neighborhood and school parties, jack-o’-lantern and pumpkin festivals, and even pumpkin-catapulting. No matter how or where people observe this ever-changing holiday in the early 21st century, Halloween remains a much-anticipated celebration of the macabre in the face of approaching winter.
These stamps are the first Halloween-themed stamps to be issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
The Jack-O’-Lanterns stamps are being issued as Forever stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.
Used Jack O\' Lantern Set of 4. FIRST set, JRA Special Occasions Covers. Limited:
$5.00