The combination of 12 signs and five elements results in a 60-months cycle. Each coming year has the characteristics and disadvantages of the sign and element that govern it. The Chinese New Year’ day is calculated according to the lunar calendar and falls in the end of January or in February and on 23 January 2012 we shall enter the Year of Dragon. The dragon is the luckiest sign of Chinese horoscope. In China the dragon has always symbolised power, justice, strength and wealth. The sign was used and worn by emperors and generals. Dragons are powerful friends and dangerous enemies, they bring happiness and immortality. The dragon can heal and chase off evil spirits. It is believed that the dragon can tame nature forces and adjust them to man. Within the fact lies also the big charisma of this mythic creature and people born in the year of the dragon. They are never ordinary; they are charming and give the feeling of safeness.

Title: Lunar year of Dragon – Croatia
Date of Issue: 4 January 2012
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 1,6 kn

Source: http://www.posta.hr

Her colours are not the whiteness and blueness, her suggestion is neither stillness nor tranquillity. She has warmed up her background in brown and rosy tones; she has marked the orbits of dance by bright yellow and greenish spirals. The small stars are coloured, blue, red and all colours they can be, as if seen under coloured reflector rays on stage. Some stars are even two-coloured, as if transiting from one light beam to another.

The dance has chased off any thought of coldness and has reanimated what might have been frozen. The snowflakes are thus clothed in the robe of a special holiday and are not the same as in most winter days – but loudly and merrily cheer the New Year. Andersen is surely not the only literary authority for snowflakes and little stars.

Title: Christmas 2011 – Croatia
Date of Issue: 24 November 2011
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 3,1 kn

Source: http://www.posta.hr

The tricolour flag and the checkerboard pattern, that by their elementarity straightway denote a noble heraldic antiquity, have become talkative – a tricolour got sealed with the coat of arms in order to become different from its European kin, a checkerboard pattern got crowned with regional symbols in order to affirm the theses of regionalisms. Regardless of the fact that no consensus has been reached on the artistic result of that redesign the coat of arms and the flag are symbols of existence and pride, they do honour and are meant to honour.

The designer Dean Roksandi framed them from „inside“, making their own extent infinite. At the same time he turned the direction of surface into depth, incorporating wind, swaying, dynamics and the thought of freedom. State, homeland, original homeland, our fathers and grandfathers’ land, our country, our native land: all these words in their inner or wider sense refer to that same piece of land under our feet, to the geography that changed through times, but there where its contours merge with the soul, has always remained the same.

Title: Statehood Day
Date of Issue: 24 June 2011
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 3,1 kn

Source: anniversary,croatia,history

Bilje – the Palace of Prince Eugen of Savoy The palace in Bilje (Hungarian Béllye), about ten kilometres north from Osijek was built in the first half of the 18th century by Prince Franz Eugen of Savoy and Piemont (1663 – 1736). History remembers him as one of the most famous Austrian army generals whose victories marked the final end of Turkish conquests in Europe (by the Treaty in Srijemski Karlovci in 1699 the Turks were forced south of the River Sava into today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina). Bilje (Billie) is mentioned in old documents for the first time in 1212. By 1918 Bilje was in the County of Baranja, within the Pecz diocese. The Palace of the Prince Eugen of Savoy is the best known palace of the Baranja valley, recognisable for its endless wheat fields, lowland woods and gentle wine-reach slopes.

Valpovo – the Hilleprand-Prandau Normann-Ehrenfels Castle The castle in Valpovo, built into a medieval fortress is a recognisable medieval architectural baroque complex which gives to the town of Valpovo its specific and recognisable identity. Valpovo castle with the fortress and a vast garden is one of the most important cultural treasures of the profane architecture in north Croatia. Medieval feudal property in Valpovo exists from the 14th century. Medieval fortress of Valpovo– the fortified town (Castrum Walpo) was first mentioned in 1438. At the end of the 17th century it was already considerably damaged. In the ground plan it had a shape of an irregular elongated triangle with the high tower on its north point.

Title: Castles of Croatia
Date of Issue: 16 June 2011
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 3,1 kn, 3,1 kn, 4,6 kn, 4,6 kn

Source: www.posta.hr

Just for this reason forests are not only biological reserves and the destruction of Amazon is not just an environmental problem. Especially for Europe, forests are a constitutive cultural fact. They sing eternally. They are selva morale, that inevitable place of choosing directions, the place whereto medieval Bovo took his beloved: “Through the leafy forest, Bovo went a-riding, and his pretty Merswind trotted on beside him”.

Forest is that land into which Tristan and Isolde are willingly expelled, where they experience happiness and reconsideration of their love. The forest is what exchanges meaning with the pillars of cathedrals. It is a dark background for crumbs and small stones left behind by Hansel and Gretel; it is a soil of memory preserving a thought about returning home. Forest has its own consciousness and subconsciousness, according to the lesson by Maurice Maeterlinck. Forest is a matter of constant choice, Holzwege, (wood-ways) as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century would say.

Forest is finally that space of (political, social) standpoint (for Green Cadre), the choice confirmed in saying „He went into the forest”, meaning that he took his portion of active freedom; or it is maybe the good wish from the syntagma „God turned you toward the forest”. Forest is a place where meeting one’s own self is inevitable where final choices are made: it is the Stribor’s Forest by Ivana Brli? Mažurani?. Once, deforestation implied progress of civilisation: “deforestation, protection”.

Title: Europa 2011 forests – Croatia
Date of Issue: 5 May 2011
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 7,1 kn x 2

Source: www.posta.hr

A stimulus for play, an invocation of joy! International Children’s Festival in Šibenik has reached half-a-century of age and has entered into its 51st year of existence! Founded in 1958, in its beginnings it was organised randomly– in the way children usually do things – sometimes yes and sometimes no! It kept changing its name (First Festival of the Child, Festival of the Child Šibenik, Yugoslav Child Festival, International Child Festival), testing concepts, wandering and inquiring all around with the goal to show to anyone – during its 15 days of duration, from the middle of June to the beginning of July – all the good and valuable in productions for children and creations by children themselves.

In which way the festival ran all these years, and what was actually happening, tell us monographies, movie documents, radio and television programs, various chronicles, notices, reviews, bulletins… presenting compliments and thanks to all those who supported and maintained the festival with their wits, joy, all kinds of knowledge and benevolence, promoting Šibenik into a town of play, opposing to any kind of impotence and ill-temper. To the children of Šibenik the Festival brings twofold joy: the end of a school year marks the beginning of the Festival and it is hardly awaited since it is a kind of monopoly on play, that colours, babbles and sets the town loose, turning it into a site for any kind of mystery and opportunity, liberating it from the pose and phrase, from ill-temper and anxiety.

For, it jumps, sings, dances, acts, juggles, paints, draws, makes all what the children do in kindergartens, first class, eight class end even those in higher classes and older. The Festival days are like an interspace, that (broke free from the usual course of events, an international children’s interspace visited by unusual living beings “of sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, mouth always ready for laughter”, as already some time ago noticed and written down for his Hobbits, by the great master Tolkien! This is the time of festivity and wonder, invaded from all continents, in all thinkable casts and directions, by fairy-tales, fables, dolls, plays, shadows and masks, music, songs, dance… Magicians, witches, Caesars, chimney-sweepers, pucks, dragons, kings, knights, dwarfs, old witches, princesses, musketeers, queens, giants, beggars, captains… all flow in. Oh, what kind of clothes, costumes!

Title: International Children Festival in Sibenik
Date of Issue: 14 February 2011
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 1,6 kn

Source: www.posta.hr

The grown-ups always give kids tasks, make proposals and evaluate. This is not entirely bad, since the frame is necessary for freedom to develop. So, this small white stamp surface is a big New Year’s homework. The theme is provided for this homework that all Croatian kids know and understand very well, the theme that will be transmitted to all other kids and grown-up kids in the whole world. This homework refers, naturally, to a winter image.

The repertoire of winter images is not the same everywhere: somewhere snow is a normal occurrence, somewhere it scarcely ever occurs. However, our experience does not rely only on the real world; the screens, window-shops, posters, all kind of picture messages make our concepts almost typified in the same way as they make also our experience of year seasons typified.

This year’s theme is “The Magic Tree”. Each tree is already a magic in itself. The one evergreen, persistent and dark; the other deciduous, with soft buds in spring, thick greenness giving protective shade in summer, like an exposition of all kinds of sunny colours in autumn, like a lattice of lines permissive for the last light and warmness in winter– tree is a traffic light of year’s seasons. It speaks about change and recurrence, competes from the earliest age with our growth, it shows us often from distance where our home is and itself makes a home to many lively, especially winged and chirping beings.

Title: New Year – Croatia
Date of Issue: 6 December 2010
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 1,6 kn

Source: www.posta.hr

The styles and epochs have been exchanging round the stall, but never disregarded it. Many painters and sculptors have brought the goodness of their lives, dear lineaments of their wives and children, their next of kins and even their own into the scene of birth. By one’s own experience or longing anyone could settle in this scene.

Title: Christmas 2010 – Croatia
Date of Issue: 25 November 2010
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 3,1 kn

Source: www.posta.hr

Right the building of this railway speeded up the realisation of the idea of establishing a traffic connection between Gruž and Pile which two parts of the town before introducing the tram line, were left to unreliable transport by carriages, later superseded by horse-drawn omnibuses. At the time of introducing tram in Dubrovnik, Gruž was at the outskirts of town, but on the other hand it was a harbour and as such the starting point of all travels.

Equally so, in those days Gruž was also a kind of industrial zone of Dubrovnik but also an area of its potential growth. Everything taken into consideration, it was understandable, logical and economically sustainable to connect these two parts of the town.

Title: Tramway in Dubrovnik
Date of Issue: 22 November 2010
Country: Croatia
Denominations: 15 kn

Source: www.posta.hr

Stone Top (or Gaveznica) is a fossil volcano near Lepoglava, formed about 22 million years, where agate was first discovered in Croatia, because of which the site was declared a geological natural monument. The stone itself was used as early as the Stone Age, made evident by tools found in nearby caves. It comes in shades varying from light blue to gray and black and is, like many other types of agate, very popular in jewelry making.

Calcite is one of the most common minerals and is mostly found in limestone which forms some of Croatia’s most beautiful mountains. The famous stone from the island of Bra?, sometimes referred to as “Bra? marble,” has been known since ancient times and was used in the construction of many notable structures, such as Diocletian’s Palace in Split or the parliament buildings in Vienna and Budapest.

Title: Minerals and Rocks – Croatia
Date of Issue: 22 October 2010
Country: Croatia
Denominations: HRK 3,10

Source: www.posta.hr