COVER N. 555 - FRANCE

Postmark: Nouvel An Chinois, Année du serpent Paris la Poste 1er Jour 19.01.2025

Posted on the 19th January; Received on the 22nd January 2025

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Recently, there was a comedy serial on Portuguese TV pretty well written, something which is not always (if not seldom) the case, given that humour goes hand in hand with intelligence and wit, therefore being a rather scarce commodity (proof of this being the legions of pretence and pretentious stand-up comedians that seem to sprout like mushrooms these days, sharing with their appreciative public the obvious lack of the few attributes I just mentioned...).

One of the lines that I will not forget was something which I had never heard before formulated as such, although it is possible that the script writers had stolen it from popular wisdom: "In life there are but two certainties: death and two cups of water for one of rice."

Well, true as it might be, I think that such a basilar axiom bears reformulation, for in life there are in fact but three certainties: death, two cups of water for one of rice and the fact that day one of the new year comes always after the last day of the year gone by... 

Proof of this is the very nice Chinese new year cover that I received today, and which now joins my collection allowing me to have covers for the last three years of this annual series. Un grand merci, Roland!

I rather like the colours and the image of the serpent on the stamp and the same goes to the very nice celebratory postmark.

Not being versed in the secrets of the Chinese Zodiac, I took a peep where I thought it would be obvious to look for some information and I landed on the South China Morning Post where I could read that… 

…"In many Western countries, snakes have long been associated with evil and temptation. However, in China, snakes hold a more complex and varied symbolism. They are simultaneously associated with harvest, procreation, spirituality, and good fortune, as well as cunning, evil, threat, and terror."

hmmm... I don't know about the first part of the sentence , but for the part beginning with cunning, I am sure that there are more than a few people out there on whom I think the sign would fit like a glove ...

The Chinese new year will begin on the 29th January. Celebrating this fact La Poste, continuing the series initiated in 2019, the year of the Pig, issued on 18JAN2025 the usual two stamps (domestic and international) on mini-sheets of 5 stamps each, dedicated to the theme. The international service stamp (2.10 €, what represents an increase of approximately 7% in the price of the service vis-à-vis last year's price of 1.96 €) was used on this cover, First Day postmarked in Paris.