A new topical (I think). It would be nice to learn about country-region-city specific holidays and see them on stamps! Sechseläuten – A local holiday in Zurich, Switzerland. A very large ‘snowman’ is built in the town square, its head full of fireworks. The holiday celebrates the beginning of Spring. A fire is started, and crowds gather to watch as the fire reaches the snowman’s head which sets off a nice display. There is controversy if the fire takes too long, goes too fast or as has happened a couple of times - the fireworks fail to ignite. This occurs in the afternoon. During the day, club bands march around the city playing. The tradition is they stop at each bar they pass and have a drink…It is funny to see the deterioration of the music as the day (and drinks) progress. The holiday is the third Monday of April. It has been held for over a century. Alas, there was no Sechseläuten this year. (I would think there would be some nice cinderellas for this topic out there...)
aah, a local holiday. In Melbourne, Australia, the first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup Day, apparently the first day in the world to have a public holiday for a horse race. It is a time-honoured race, starting in 1861, for any horse and run over 2 miles then, now 3200 metres, and limited to 24 runners. In the last couple of decades many horses now travel from overseas - UK, France, USA, Japan, New Zealand - for the rich prize money on offer: AU$8 million, AU$4.4 million for first place, plus a gold cup trophy, in 2019,. (not to mention the prestige). Not sure what 2020 will bring though, we still have racing, but at this stage, without any crowds. only on TV. The horse pictured on the stamp "Archer", won the first two cups, 1861, 1862.
Betty.....unfortunately there is a lot of spam here .I delete an awful lot once it appears but there doesnt seem to be any process to prevent it being posted in the first place. Bob
Hmmmm, now I'm gonna have to see if there's any stamp depiction of Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick UK.....!
