Canada Post has released its Year of the Pig stamp in honour of the upcoming Lunar New Year, and some Richmondites have already added it to their collections.
The 2019 design features Zhu Bajie, or Pigsy, a character from the 16th-century Chinese novel A Journey to the West.
“Canada Post is proud to join Canadians of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and other East Asian heritage celebrating the Lunar New Year,” said Jo-Anne Polak with Canada Post.
The annual tradition of releasing special-edition stamps to mark the Lunar New Year started in 1997 for the Year of the Ox.
Joyce Ang, a sales administrator with the Richmond News, has been collecting the colourful stamps for more than 15 years. She started when a friend in Malaysia asked her to send him one, and she’s been keeping up the tradition every year.
She buys one set of stamps to keep as a memento for herself, and another set or two to send as a gift.
“I have two grandsons. One was born in the Year of the Dragon, so I bought him this whole set,” she said, motioning to an array of stamps.
She was born in the Year of the Rooster, and is fond of those stamps, but also pointed to others over the years she’s liked. A couple of her favourites designs include a green ram from the year her second grandson was born, and a wrinkly shar pei.
The artwork for year’s pig stamp was created by Albert Ng and Seung Jai Paek. According to a release from Canada Post, those born in the Year of the Pig are frank, trusting, compassionate, diligent and determined.
