COVER N. 387 - NETHERLANDS - ST. MAARTEN

Postmark: Philipsburg ?.12.2023

Posted on ? December 2023; received on the 11th January 2024 

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My friend the Flying Dutchman has also been pretty busy, making sure that whenever my friend Mr.Postman opens the flap on my mailbox to drop a letter with his address on the back, he also takes a moment to take a look at the stamp, in wonder  as to where the hell do I get mail from.

Hartelijk dank, Eric, que é como quem diz: Muito obrigado!

Sint Maarten... about  half an island on the Caribbean, the other part of it being French territory, with country status since 2010, but an integral part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Colonised from the 16th century onwards by Spanish and then Dutch and French settlers, Sint Maarten / Saint Martin  was officially divided between the two powers in 1648.

As elsewhere in the Caribbean, the economy of the island grew on the exploitation of slave labour to work on the sugarcane, cotton and tobacco plantations, what led to an exponential rise in the number of inhabitants, its majority of African origin, in the 18 and 19th centuries.

Slavery was first abolished on the French side of the island, in 1848, while the Dutch would only follow the good French example in 1863.

Tourism is nowadays the focal point of the country's economy, and the effects of the immense destruction brought about by Hurricane Irma in 2017, are being overturned by a steady increase in tourist activity.

Carnival is a deeply rooted tradition in the Caribbean where it evolved from its original European nature to a much more heterogeneous and thus richer celebration, benefiting fromn the interplay of European, Amerindian and African cultures.

Carnival is also an important tradition in St. Maareen, being described as a  three-week celebration of concerts, calypso competitions, steel pan, reggae bands, costumes, pageantry, and more, which takes place every year in April.

On 20APR2029, on the occasion of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Sint Maarten's Carnival, St. Maarten Postal Services issued a mini-sheet containing six self-adhesive stamps, (85; 135; 165; 260; 305 and 420 Netherlands Antillean cent) illustrated with images evocative of the carnival parades, the 305 cent stamp having been used on the cover.

The rectangular postmark originating from Philipsburg, the capital of Sint Maarten, is rather difficult to read, but it would seem that it includes a pictorial element on its top, which unfortunatley I could not identify completely.