2016 EID Greetings Forever First Class Postage Stamps

With a desian that evokes centuries of tradition, this Eid Greetings stamp, featuring gold calligraphy and an olive branch,commemorates the two most important festivals-or eids-in the lslamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. On these days,Muslims wish each other Eidukum mubarak, the phrase shown in lslamic caligraphy on the stamp. Eidukum mubarak translatesliterally as “May your Eid be bountiful (or blessed),” a phrase that can be applied to both Eid al-Fitr and Eid a-Adha.
The caligraphy on previous Eid stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service@ has read Eid mubarak, “may the religious holiday beblessed,” with the “your” implied, but this new stamp includes the word “your” to give the text more body within a horizontalframe. The stylized olive branch carries connotations of abundance, family, hospitalty, and peace. The background color is purple.In 2022, Eid al-fitr will be celebrated in North America beginning at sunset on May 2 and Eid al-Adha wil be celebrated beginningat sunset on July 9, (These dates, which are based on geographical location and predicted sightings of the moon, are preliminaryand may vary slightly as each festival approaches.)
The U.S. Postal Service issued its first Eid stamp, with gold caligraphy against a blue background, on September 1, 2001. A newEid stamp with gold caligraphy against a reddish background debuted in 2011 and was reissued with a green background in 2013
All Eid stamps issued by the U.S., Postal Service to date feature the work of world-renowned calliqrapher Mohamed Zakariva ofArlinaton, Virainia, The art director for this stamp was Ethel Kessler.
Like other stamps in the Holiday Celebrations series, Eid Greetings is being issued as a Forever® stamp. Forever stamps arealways equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.Made in the USA