More Ukrainian stamps

12 June 2022

Each year between 2001 and 2008, Ukraine issued sets of stamps celebrating folk dress from its various regions. The designs also referenced either Church holy days and rites, or the festivals surviving from ancient pagan times, such as Koliada marking the winter solstice, and the feast of Ivan Kupala, the summer solstice. 

Detail from the 2008 issue: ‘Festival of the Transfiguration of the Lord’ – celebrated in August, hence the grape harvest, presumably, and ‘Baptism’. Crimea.

The decorative borders around the stamps all feature designs from embroidery, such as would be found on the sleeves of shirts and other items of folk dress, or on ritual towels. The borders of the 2001 and 2002 issues are very minimal and pale but they get bolder and more colourful as the years pass.

2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

  2008

I think these sheets of stamps are so attractive. I love the little landscapes along the bottom edge, as well as the embroidery designs.