USPS Kicks Off 2018 With Year of Dog Stamp

Year of the Dog Forever stamp—the first stamp of the New Year. PC: USPS

The Postal Service will kick off the New Year by issuing a pair of USPS stamps with Hawai‘i connections. Local events are planned to commemorate the occasion.

The Year of the Dog Forever stamp—the first stamp of the New Year—will be issued and available for sale nationwide on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. It is the 11th of 12 stamps in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series.

The stamp depicts an arrangement of lucky bamboo along with an intricate cut-paper design of a dog created by Hawai‘i graphic design icon Clarence Lee. Lee’s paper-cut animal designs have graced every USPS Lunar New Year stamp since they were introduced in 1992.

The stamp also features a piece of red paper with the Chinese character fu, meaning good fortune, rendered in calligraphy, and the Chinese character for “dog,” drawn in grass-style calligraphy.

The Postal Service will commemorate the issuance of this stamp with a special First Day of Issue ceremony at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11 at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza in Honolulu. The ceremony will feature remarks by Hawaii Chinese History Center president Douglas. D.L. Chong and USPS Pacific Area Vice President Larry Munoz, and culminate in the official unveiling of the stamp. Those in attendance will be able to purchase sheets of the Year of the Dog stamps and have them hand cancelled for free with a special commemorative postmark. This event is free and open to the public.

Byodo-In Temple Priority Mail stamp. PC: USPS

The Byodo-In Temple Priority Mail stamp will be issued on Jan. 21 and available for sale nationwide on Monday, Jan, 22.

This stamp features a colorful illustration of the Byodo-In Temple, located at Valley of the Temples Memorial Park in Kaneohe.

The Byodo-In Temple is a smaller-scale concrete replica of a wooden Buddhist temple located in Uji, Japan that dates back to the middle of the 11th century. Byodo-In was built in 1968 to commemorate the centennial of the first Japanese immigration to Hawaii.

The Postal Service will commemorate the issuance of this stamp with a special dedication event at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at the Byodo-In Temple. The ceremony will feature remarks by Valley of the Temples Area General Manager Dennis Boser Jr. and Kaneohe Postmaster Kanani Alos, and culminate in the official unveiling of the stamp. Those in attendance will be able to purchase Byodo-In Priority stamps and have them hand cancelled for free with a special pictorial postmark. This event is free and open to the public.