International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day, celebrated on May 1, is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Also known as Labor Day in many countries, it was related in the labor union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement that advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest in one day. In Canada and the United States, it is celebrated on the first Monday of September, marking the end of the summer holiday when most students return to school.

The featured postcard was purchased from the National Geographic store at zazzle.com, showing construction workers on beams at the top of the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. Copyright: Paul Chesley / National Geographic Stock.

A View from the top of the Stratosphere Tower

Belarusian Cat

Postcard BY-1460654 from Belarus shows an illustrated Belarusian Cat by artist Ekaterina Shmirina, dressing like Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), a fictional character who in some Slavic cultures plays a similar role as Santa Claus does.

Christmas Market in Fellbach, Germany

Postcard DE-3731053 from Germany shows the Christmas Market around the town hall in Fellbach, Germany. It opens from December 4 to December 21 in 2014, and it has an open-air ice rink next to the Lutheran Church through January 6, 2015.

The food court opens daily from noon on weekdays, from 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday; and closes late on 8:00 p.m. (although it's early in Las Vegas standard.) Many groups from kindergartens, schools, music and chorus clubs perform daily at the City Hall courtyard.

Ho Ho Ho

It is the time of the year again to join more than 10,000 Santa lookalikes to run 5K or walk 1 mile in the annual Great Santa Run in Las Vegas, Nevada, and get a special postmark on your mail from Santa Claus Station, Santa Claus, Indiana.

In its 10th anniversary at downtown Las Vegas, the Great Santa Run, is a fundraiser event for Opportunity Village, a nonprofit organization founded 60 years ago in 1954 that serves almost 3,000 people with intellectual disabilities with vocational training, employment opportunities, enrichment services and other supports. (Update: the number of runners in 2014 was tallied as 8725)

The Great Santa Run in Las Vegas, 2014

In Santa Claus, Indiana, the famous small-town post office Santa Claus Station, the only one in the world bearing the Santa Claus name, is offering a special pictorial postmark on holiday mail again this year, continuing a tradition since 1983. Every year, the holiday postmark is designed by a local high school art student during an annual contest. Shyann Smith, a 2014 senior at Heritage Hills High School from Fulda, Indiana won the 2014 competition. The postmark is available from December 1 to December 24.

Postmaster Marian Balbach asks anyone who requests the special cancellation to follow the guidelines:

• Allow at least a 2-inch by 4-inch space in the stamp area for the picture postmark;
• Apply postage to cards or letters before bringing or mailing them to the post office;
• If you wish to mail Christmas cards to the post office, package them—with postage stamps already on them—in a sturdy envelope or box, and mail to: Postmaster, Santa Claus Station, Santa Claus, IN 47579-9998;
• The picture postmark is available on working days between December 1 and 24;
• The picture postmark must be requested by the postal customer;
• To ensure a good postmark imprint, do not enclose large or bulky items in your holiday mail (Ex: reindeer food, snowflakes, glitter, stickers, etc.);
• There is no charge for postmarking; however, there is a limit of 50 picture postmarks (hand cancellations) per person per day.

Postcard US-2452330 to Taiwan was sent in to the Santa Claus Station for its 2013 edition of the special cancellation, replacing a prior Flying Jenny card presumably lost in the mail.

North Pole Postmark Offered Through December 15

According to a news release from the U.S. Postal Service, once again, USPS is offering North Pole postmarks on holiday mail in 2014.

To receive the North Pole postmark on your holiday cards, you should:

• Purchase stamps at any post office.
• Affix the stamps to envelopes of your choice.
• Address the sealed envelopes, with the cards enclosed, to those on your mailing list.
• Mail them in a larger envelope,  box,  Priority Mail or Express Mail package to:

NORTH POLE HOLIDAY CANCELLATION
POSTMASTER
4141 POSTMARK DR
ANCHORAGE AK 99530-9998

Requests must be received in Anchorage by December 15, 2014 in order to ensure delivery by Christmas. The Postal Service receives hundreds of thousands of requests each year for North Pole postmarks from around the world.  The service is provided at no cost.  Each card or letter must have the correct amount of postage and be addressed.

Postcard US-2529937 to Taiwan shows a rubber stamp impression of polar bears sledding on a sleigh with a USPS Gingerbread House Forever stamp, before the card was sent in for cancellation last year.

German Unity Day

Today is the German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), the national day of Germany. Celebrated on October 3 every year, it is a public holiday that commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990. The reunification process started as the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, and was formally completed on October 3, 1990. The German Unity Day, the national holiday of the Federal Republic of Germany, had been previously celebrated on June 17 since 1954. It was celebrated twice in 1990, once on June 17, 1990 and the other on October 3, 1990.

Postcard DE-1272658  was a lenticular 3D postcard. When viewing from different angles, it shows the reunified Germany by Day or by Night from space. It was also the first official PostCrossing postcard I received from Germany.

Vintage Easter Bunny

Postcard US-2698997 to Japan shows a Victorian Easter postcard, created by golden_oldies, with some charming bunnies and Easter eggs. Easter is a festival and holiday celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead three days after his crucifixion by Romans at Calvary. Easter occurs between March 22 and April 25. In 2014, it is celebrated on April 20.

Beers Over Equality

St. Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious holiday that celebrates the death date of the most commonly-recognized patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick on March 17. While the festivals are underway this Sunday, Guinness became the third beer company to withdraw sponsorship of a major St. Patrick's Day parade in the U.S. because the organizers banned LGBT groups from openly participating in the parades.

Earlier, according to Boston.com, Boston Beer Company, which manufactures Sam Adams, announced on March 14 to pull out today's parade in Boston after South End restaurant Club Cafe said that it would no longer serve Sam Adams due to the brewer's sponsorship with the parade. Boston's Irish-American Mayor Martin Walsh skipped his city's St. Patrick's Day parade after failing to broke a deal with organizers to allow a group of gay and lesbian activists to march openly.

In New York City, Heineken ended its relationship with the 250-year old parade for the same reason; and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will not be marching in the parade on Monday, March 17 to protest the exclusionary policies, becoming the first mayor in decades to break the tradition.

How Many Days Until Next Holiday?

Postcard RU-2424924 came from Russia with a lovely holiday theme. However, it does remind us that all the winter holidays had faded away, and makes us wonder how many days until the next holiday. For the people in the U.S., next federal holiday, Memorial Day, is 91 days away on Monday, May 26, 2014. You can check XDAYSLEFT for a countdown to other events or holidays.

Ladram Bay

Postcard GB-515408 from the United Kingdom shows Ladram Bay on the south coast of Devon, England. It is a secluded bay with pebble beach, between the coastal towns of Budleigh Salterton on the southwest and Sidmouth on the northeast. The RV park at Ladram Bay, Ladram Bay Holiday Park,  is the second largest holiday center in Devon, offering fantastic views over the ocean. It is located within the 155-km or 96-mile Jurassic Coast where a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations reveal 185 million years of the Earths history.

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Washington’s Birthday

Washington’s Birthday is a federal holiday, originally established by an Act of Congress in 1879 and celebrated on the third Monday of February, in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. The holiday is widely known as "Presidents Day" often to celebrate other, if not all, presidents. In 2014, the holiday falls to February 17 due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. Washington's actual birthday is February 22.

I present this maxi card showing the Washington Monument, an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to mark this occasion. The Monument was built to commemorate George Washington. On August 28, 1963, a massive crowd marched by the Monument en-route to the Lincoln Memorial for the "March on Washington" rally.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., an activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his "I have a dream" speech, delivered at the 1963 March on Washington gathering, as shown on the Postcard US-2474576 to China.

Whereas King's birthday is January 15, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a floating holiday observed on the third Monday of January each year under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. In 2014, it falls on January 20.

Happy Holidays from the Netherlands

The holiday spirits continue with today's new arrival NL-2237831. On the back of the card are many snow flakes from a rubber stamp.  

Las Vegas Great Santa Run

More than 11,000 Santas descended to downtown Las Vegas this morning for the Great Santa Run, the 9th annual fund raise event for the Opportunity Village that provides vocational training and employment services for people with intellectual disabilities. The Great Run features a 5K run and a one-mile walk and there are similar Santa run events in Japan, England and Australia to compete the best turnout count.

With the estimated cut-off dates for holiday mail approaching, today I sent off several postcards, including postcard US-2540431 to Belgium, to Santa Claus, Indiana for the special Santa Claus postmark. This small town is the only one in the world with the Santa Claus name and its post office receives more than 400,000 pieces of mail in December every year. You can follow the instructions mentioned here, and send your stamped cards and envelops to: Postmaster, Santa Claus Station, Santa Claus, IN 47579-9998.

Merry Christmas from North Pole, Alaska

I sent a postcard on November 15, 2013 to get a North Pole Holiday Cancellation. It came back today with a spray-on postmark generated by computer. I can understand that it is more efficient to process daily mails by printing postmarks using a high-speed ink-jet printer. But I am disappointed to see they are not using a more traditional stamp like other places do for the holiday mails. Especially you can hardly tell what that picture is. It is interesting to read what Josh Gerstein, staff reporter of the Sun (New York), wrote 'You've Got To Face It': The Postmark Is Going the Way of the Telegram on May 10, 2006.

For those who wish to get a North Pole Holiday Cancellation, please follow the steps from my previous blog.

Merry Christmas from Christmas, Florida

Christmas is an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, with 1,146 residents as of 2010 census. Every year, people send a large amount of mails to its post office for re-mailing so that they can have the "Christmas" postmark on their holiday letters and postcards. You will need to address your mails and affix adequate USPS first class postage: US$ 1.10 for a one-oz international letter or postcard; US$ 0.46 for a one-oz domestic one-oz letter or a 5"x 7" postcard; UD$ 0.33 for a 4" x 6" postcard. Then put your mails into a large envelop with enough postage and send the envelop to: 

ATTN: For Re-Mailing

Postmaster

U.S. Post Office

23580 E Colonial DR

Christmas, FL 32709

I recently sent a package with a few postcards to Christmas, FL for re-mailing and already received the one addressed to myself. 

I have drove pass Christmas, Florida several times but didn't get to stop due to either in a rush or not in the season. The most recent drive-through was when I flew into Tampa from Las Vegas, then drove to Kennedy Space Center to see the final space shuttle launch on July 8, 2011. Although from a YouTube video there seems not much happening there, I wouldn't consider that a failure as suggested in the video if I had stopped by. Certainly, the postmarks are beautiful and will bring joys to those who received your mails.