Late last year the United States Postal service revealed that they will be producing a Halloween set of forever stamps featuring photographs of four carved pumpkins in the spirit of the Fall holiday.
This week they released word that the stamps would make their debut in self proclaimed ‘Halloween Capital of the World,’ Anoka, Minnesota, which celebrates the holiday with events like large parades, a fitness walk and a house decorating contest.
Choosing Anoka might have been a no brainer for the Postal Service, as the town has an interesting history with the holiday that has gone on for almost one hundred years…
Prior to the Fall of 1920, the teenagers and children of Anoka played pranks on the residents every October 31st, making the date more of a pain then a day to look forward to.
The leadership of the town decided to have a huge celebration on Halloween to distract the younger population from causing mischief. This included a parade where all of the children in town could march down main street and this parade has taken place every year since barring two years during America’s involvement in World War Two.
In 1937 twelve year old Harold Blair took a trip from Anoka to Washington, D.C. to declare the town’s rightful place as the leader in all things Halloween in the nation’s capital.
As for the stamps themselves, they will be unveiled in Anoka on September, 29th, 2016 and the event will include entertainment and presentations, details of which will be announced at a later date.
The stamps, which come in four different designs, are actual photographs of carved pumpkins, as described on the USPS Website:
“In the spirit of Halloween, the Postal Service issues these delightfully eerie stamps featuring photographs of four different jack-o’-lanterns.
These creatively carved pumpkins have been symbols of Halloween in the United States since the late 19th century, not long after celebrations of the holiday began here.
These are the first Halloween-themed stamps issued by the Postal Service. Paul Montanari designed and carved the pumpkins under the art direction of Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. Sally Andersen-Bruce photographed the lit jack-o’-lanterns used on the stamps.”
The official social media hashtag for these spooky little bits of postage is: #halloweenstamps
In other Halloween related news, Fortune reported that Americans spend more money on candy for the Easter holiday then they do on Halloween, a difference between 2.4 billion dollars spent on Easter candy and 2.1 billion spent on Halloween candy.
This was partially attributed to data that said that eighty percent of Americans planned on celebrating Easter while only sixty percent of them planned on celebrating Halloween.
–Thomas Spychalski
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(Via Fortune.com/USPS.com)
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