International work-related curiosity

[sally_maria]

Since this is the first year I've been closely involved in the long-standing British tradition of special Christmas stamps (this year's designs), I've been curious to know whether this is a unique thing.

Are there special Christmas stamps where you live? Do people send calendars (this seems to be a tradition among a significant number of British people, but not one I'd actually come across before I started working for a shop that sold them)?

Are there other traditions connected with posting for Christmas?

Comments

[rustica.livejournal.com]

NZ has special issue stamps - however the big design at the moment is not at all Christmassy. Guess what it is? :)

NZ also has a huge thing for calendars, probably because so much of the country is clearly designed to be picture-postcard-and-calendar pretty. Also because about 22% of the population is foreign-born, so likely have friends and family overseas. It's normal to buy calendars over here complete with envelope designed for sending overseas, with weights and dimensions clearly printed on them. Quite to my surprise, I recently saw that you can buy calendars from other places over here -want one of Venice? or New York? No problem!

Something else I find strange over here on the subject (sort of) of calendars, but more particularly diaries: in the UK you can buy them for several varieties of 'year', ie the calendar year Jan-Dec, the fiscal year Apr-Mar and the university year, which I think ran Jul-Jun. In NZ, I've only seen the Jan-Dec version.

[sally_maria]

I do wonder. ;-)

Yes, the New Zealand calendar habit does sound very similar to the British one - the way people would grumble if the calendar they happened to buy didn't come with a special posting envelope...

Does the NZ academic year run from September to July, with a long winter holiday? If so, it seems like the printers are missing out on a sales opportunity - we certainly used to sell enough mid-year(academic) diaries.

[rustica.livejournal.com]

No, the academic year is Jan to Dec (or in practice, Feb till whenever; I suppose technically until end Nov when the results come out). However, the tax year is similar to the UK. Not quite the same - the tax year is to the 31st March rather than the 5th April, but I'm probably the only one who finds that even vaguely interesting.

I'm astonished you can't get mid year diaries here. Because what happens if you - I don't know - start a new job partway through the year or something, and you suddenly need a diary? You can't buy a Jan to Dec one because the shops have stopped selling those, and anyhow half of the pages would already be wasted. But I guess there just isn't the market here.

[sally_maria]

Well, I suppose that in modern terms 5th April is fairly arbitrary, even if there are good historical reasons for it. Moving it to the nearest month end probably makes sense, even though it's a shame to lose that historical link.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Do you know why the UK tax year is to 5 April?

[rustica.livejournal.com]

Yes :).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I thought you might, but I also thought it worth asking :-)

[sally_maria]

Yes. ;-)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting topic (for a tired Tuesday afternoon).

I've been working on academic years for my whole life (seemlessly going from being in education to having children in education - sometimes both at once) and have bought a mid-year diary all of about twice. I wonder how many mid-year diaries (and other diaries, and calendars) are bought as gifts or get-organised gizmos that never really get used? Perhaps NZers weren't in this habit, and have moved over to electronic diaries more fully?

[sally_maria]

I never used one, that I remember, but there's definitely a significant market for them, all the same.

I'm sure some of them are bought, never to be used, but the number of people who'd buy them every year, and clamour for them months before they were released was a fairly clear sign that they were being used.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

You can buy calendars of those places here too, e.g. in Waterstones. Not a new phenomenon.

Surely NZ & Australia have Jan-Dec school/uni years and perhaps the fiscal year is the same (or only special shops sell the fiscal ones with their log books etc.)?