Year of the Dragon 2024: Jersey Philatelic celebrates the Lunar New Year - Year of the Dragon

Known as the Spring Festival, Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. In 2024, it begins on Saturday, 10 February, kicking off 15 days of celebration culminating in the Lantern Festival.

Observed by communities worldwide, the festival is a time for family, reunion, reflection, and the welcoming of luck for the year ahead. Each year is ruled by a different zodiac sign in a 12-year cycle—with the dragon symbolising strength, wisdom, and good fortune.

A Unique Stamp Design by Wang Huming 

For this issue, Jersey Post once again collaborated with Wang Huming, Deputy Chief Designer of the Postage Stamp Printing Bureau of China Post. Huming has illustrated all previous stamps in the Lunar New Year series, using a distinctive style rooted in traditional Chinese painting and paper cutting.

The £1.65 stamp features a golden dragon on a bold red background—colours historically associated with good harvests, prosperity, and joy.

The miniature sheet depicts a dragon soaring through clouds, inspired by classical interpretations from Eastern Han Dynasty scholars such as Wang Fu, a Chinese historian and philosopher during the Eastern Han Dynasty suggested that the Chinese dragon’s unique appearance is due to it being a combination of many different animal features. These features include heads which are in similar shape to a camel, the ears of a bull, the antlers of a stag, the body of a snake, the armored body belly of a clam, feet similar to a tiger, talons of an eagle and a body that includes the protective scales of a carp. Scholars have disputed why Chinese dragons have been deciphered this way, with some suggestions being due to a unification of the different tribes. 

This mythological layering reflects both the cultural richness and the dynamic beauty of Chinese folklore.