February 18, 2007, is the beginning of the Year of the Pig on the Chinese lunar calendar. In honor of the new year, the Chinese post office has issued commemorative stamps depicting a red pig (red is a good luck color in China) and 5 little piglets. The stamps have a face value of 1.2 yuan (15 cents).But here's the cool thing. If you scratch the front of the stamp, it smells like pork (which must be better than smelling like a pig, I guess) and the glue that you lick tastes like sweet-and-sour pork.
Just for the record, this is not the first scratch-and-sniff stamp in the world. Here are some other smells that have been available in stamp form: rose (Australia), magnolia (New Zealand), eucalyptus (U.K.), chocolate (Switzerland) and green tea (Hong Kong).
And on a final note, in 2008 the Chinese new year will be the Year of the Rat. Let's hope for no stamps.
No comments:
Post a Comment