Year of the Dragon Stamp First-Day-of-Issue Dedication Ceremony

SAN FRANCISCO — In observance of Lunar New Year, the U.S. Postal Service will commemorate the first day of issue of the Lunar New Year – Year of the Dragon Forever Stamp on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012 at the Hilton Hotel Financial District, Grand Ballroom, Third Floor, 750 Kearny Street, San Francisco. The public is invited to attend this national stamp issuance event. Stamp sales will begin at 9 a.m. with the ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m.

U.S. Postal Service Vice President of Corporate Communications Sam Pulcrano will be the dedicating official, along with San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee. Also scheduled to speak at the event are: Clifford Yee, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans, San Francisco Bay Chapter, Tony Fong, president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Ng, presiding president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Claudine Cheng, past national president of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

This is the fifth of twelve stamps in the Postal Service’s second Celebrating Lunar New Year series, which began in 2008 with the Year of the Rat. The Year of the Dragon begins on January 23, 2012, and ends on February 9, 2013. Famous people born in the Year of the dragon include: author and poet Maya Angelou, singer and song writer John Lennon and San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee.

Art director Ethel Kessler worked on the series with illustrator Kam Mak, who will also be in attendance. The artwork focuses on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year holiday is celebrated. For the Year of the Dragon, the art depicts part of a colorful dragon as seen in traditional Dragon Dancing for welcoming of the New Year. The eye-popping illustration, based on a photograph by the artist, was originally created using oil paints on panel.

Kessler’s design also incorporates elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps, using Clarence Lee’s intricate paper-cut design of a dragon and the Chinese character—drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun—for “Dragon.”

The Lunar New Year is celebrated primarily by people of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Mongolian heritage in many parts of the world. Parades, parties, and other special events are common. Images associated with some of these widespread customs are depicted in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series.