Blast from the Past RR [part #2 - Traditional Dress, Holiday, and Celebraion]

     Around half a year is the time to continue Blast from the Past series of posts [part #1], which is weird because those already have some text in them taken from reporting in the RR thread compared to most draft posts which are just title + pictures. It always appears though that postcards from that round robin are so dense with picture, message, stamps, they need way more words added! [I use a lot of original text of the message on the back - by the traditions of that round robin it's implied it's allowed during reporting cards, so message meant to be shared for all participants' enjoyment and curiosity] Group #2 was dedicated to "Traditional Dress, Holiday, and Celebration", wide and open to interpretations as always!

     CStar9 send an interesting vintage postcard with added sticker to the face - expressing her own feelings about the rugby game which girl on the picture is supposingly cheering for. Clarisse writes that while bending the rules of 'traditional' dress [being creating with theme interpretation!], Harvard University [where she works] is really into its 400-year-old traditions. The exact story of this Victorian Era image ["Custom made in the USA" says text on the back] is unknown, but it's clear she's rooting for Harvard in 'the Big Game'. What's that one might ask?.. Well, Harvard plays Yale University in American football every year [isn't this tradition similar to Oxford - Cambridge yearly boat race?]. It's rather dull because neither team is particularly good, but they make it a dramatic event nonetheless! The poor soul on this card may be a cheerleader. Clarisse hopes after she got her Harvard degree she became a physicist and never watched football again. I second the feelings about American football - it's very slow and unimpressive, even in comparison with classical rugby [only fun game is rugby-7 or Maori version on round field].

postcard (left) and stamp-replacing-decoration (right), received from CStar9, USA (BlastRR#2)

     The place for stamp was decorated with adorable collage with slight hint on traditional floral American forever stamp, and one of the signs of awesomeness of the cards is seen - when there is so much to write, text curls up around the card and fills all available space xD As extra treat - envelope with UN stamps, since officially USA doesn't send to Russia [and judged by experience cards sent directly reach Russia, but via UN is fun way to try for any postal geek].

envelope received from CStar9, USA (BlastRR#2)

     Elisabeth, mwntimperial, for that group sent a absolute treasure - vintage photo of a wedding party. Elisabeth writes that she found the photo card in an antiques shop in Newcastle Emlyn, West Wales, when they had to stop to get a new tyre en route to the holiday! [burst tyre on a long, wet journey] She just liked this picture - the people's faces are so expressive - and to be honest pretty funny and the brides would you call it a mob cap?! It's hard to tell where her flowers end and she begins. It'd be nice to know the story behind this picture, but unfortunately all Elisabeth could guess is that it is probably from Devon on South Coast of England. I think the facial expressions of different epochs is something fascinating to think about - it’s like a ‘face mask’ people wear [that’s why most of modern actresses look stupid in old fashioned dresses, because certain dress requires a face and sometimes a posture - like gothic slouching], also in the early photography weird facial expressions were connected with exposure and capture time - people needed to be sit still for 5 - 30 minutes in 1840s - 1860s, by 1900s it was similar to nowadays - seconds tops [technically wedding mob caps were still popular in first half on 19th century, and wedding gown just meant best head gown bride had, and closer to the end of 19th century they were used more for servants, nannies etc., so that somewhat places us in approximate dates of the photo; also you can see that gentleman on top left is a bit smudged = long exposure time]. On stamp - interesting artefact, one of the Govan Stones, looks like giant armoured slug to me xD

postcard (left) and stamp (right), received from mwntimperial, UK (BlastRR#2)

     Another interesting take on Group #2 theme was from Xiaojia, bx-zxj - traditional attires and Qixi Festival are always better if you add cats in the mix! The festival is also related to a Chinese mythological Cowherd and Weaver Girl, and basically celebrates romantic love equivalent to Western February, 14th. On that day the Cowherd and Weaver Girl will meet in the sky through the Magpie Bridge [the scene is depicted above in the background on the postcard]. People on the ground will pray for a happy marriage. I also received similar postcard in a swap before which is showing different traditional Chinese festival - Zhong Yuan Festival, known as the Mid-July [somehow wikipedia shows mid-August dates for last years, maybe lovelylulu will explain the confusion in the comments ^^]. On that day people will make a small sacrifice for their ancestors and set off lanterns in the water with a pray - the lanterns are made in form of a lotus and look absolutely magical [there is a photo in wikipedia page]! Cards on the back have small part of the illustration from front in the middle bottom part, and always nice to see stamps and whole layout of cards sent from China and any other Asian country which uses hieroglyphs [I wrote before about sense of beautifully organized layout from backside of Asian cards, I think it's partly connected with space and depth perception caused by different writing systems - like Europeans only see layout of the backside in horizontal, left-right direction, and Asian postcrossers use both vertical and horizontal alignment when writing the card - it can be seen in chosen spaces for each element etc.]. 

left - received from bx-zxj, China (BlastRR#2); right - received from mm6, China (direct swap)

left - backside of postcard, received from bx-zxj, China (BlastRR#2); right - stamps of postcard, received from mm6, China (direct swap)

Blast from the Past RR [part #1 - The beginning]

      I've decided that as much effort I put in reporting received cards on official forum - it takes a lot of time to describe and thank properly, especially in such diverse and intelligent round robin like Blast in the Past - that effort should be easily translated with certain upgrade to my blog [for which I also don't have much time lately].

     It was Nancy, Twasbrillig, who brought me to that wonderful RR right on the start and I had an honour of participation in the very first group - Group 1 - Fossils, Petroglyphs, and Cave Art - The card from Nancy, TwasBrillig, arrived first [so incredibly fast, and ironically about twice faster than my cards usually get to USA or Europe, and faster than cards arriving from Europe, which doesn’t have connection ‘closed’]. The card shows a supernova witnessed in AD 1054, saved in stone by Chaco Culture N.H.P., New Mexico, photo by Randall K. Roberts. Description on the back says: "One of most perplexing aspects of rock art is the inability for most of us to know for certain what they mean. This panel, near Peñasco Blanco, is significant because it is believed to represent the supernova witnessed on Earth in A.D. 1054. This awareness and knowledge of the sky is consistent with what we know of the Chacoan Anasazi, who constructed numerous 'calendars' to record both Summer and Winter solstices, most likely for agricultural purposes."

left - received from CStar9, USA (Blast from the Past RR#1); right - received from Twasbrillig, USA (Blast from the Past RR#1)

     And CStar9 sent a card which I love so much! I was wanting to receive petrified forest card for so long [Clarisse wrote that petrified wood is CRAZY AMAZING -- I haven’t see petrified trees yet myself, but I can imagine I’d go bananas too], but recently with postal connection cut off it was less probable, so I was amazed by instant round robin postcrossing serendipity. CStar9 was sick while writing the card, so they used a lot of hand sanitizer [hmm, I instantly remembered my quarantine postcard pocket]. Fun postcard fact about germs - sometimes workers of University biolabs are sending samples [not dangerous ones of course] to other labs via post to avoid bureaucracy [just a spit in the middle of postcard wafer in the envelope, the receivers then dissolved the paper], and when one of my husband's friends had a son, he sent everyone a card with the news but also with a fake ‘sample’ on the card, like an inside joke xD Card description on the back: "Petrified forest National Park in Arizona was established in 1962, the 30th among America's National Parks. Colors in the petrified wood come mainly from three minerals including: pure quartz which is white, manganese oxides form blue, purple, black, and brown, and iron oxides providing hues from yellow through red to brown. Over 10,000 years of human history can be found in the park, including over 800 archaeological and historical sites."

     The third card was supposed to be from Pia, piavano, but it got lost it seems unfortunately, even though my American pals use various creative ways to address cards to me [using UN stamps or just addressing cards directly even though USPS claims they don't send to Russia], their cards arrive faster and more stable than cards from Europe these years.