Greeting stamp - Love
Date of issue: 26.01.2024
Author: Marko Prah
Motive: Love
Printed by: Royal Joh. Enschedé, Netherlands
Printing Process and Layout: 4-colour offset in sheetlets of 10 stamps
Paper: Tullis Russell Chancellor Litho PVA RMS GUM, 102 g/m2
Size: Heart in a square of 44.00 x 44.00 mm
Perforation: Comb 14 : 14
Illustration:
Photo:
Greetings Stamp
Giving material weight to a relationship!
In many cities around the world, the custom of attaching padlocks to bridges and other public fixtures has proliferated in recent years, as a way for sweethearts to symbolise the unbreakability of their love, since after locking their padlock to a bridge, they throw the key into the river flowing beneath it. When and where this habit (or vice, depending on whether you are in favour of it or against it) first began, is not entirely clear, although it is usually said to have originated on the Ponte Milvio in Rome in 2006. That was the year that author Federico Moccia published his novel Ho voglia di te (I Want You), which was made into a film the following year. In both book and film, the young protagonists seal their love with a padlock, which they attach to a lamp post on the bridge and then throw the key into the Tiber. Following the release of the film, so many padlocks engraved with the initials or full names of couples were attached to the lamp post and other parts of the bridge that the lamp post collapsed under their weight. In Paris, part of the parapet of the Pont des Arts collapsed under the 45-tonne weight of almost 200,000 padlocks. Numerous cities have prohibited the attaching of padlocks to bridges and have begun removing them. In some places they have introduced penalties for transgressors: anyone attempting to attach a padlock to the Rialto Bridge in Venice can find themselves faced with a 3,000 euro fine. Officials at the Grand Canyon National Park (USA) have warned that the practice could be harming endangered California condors, which are attracted to the shiny keys in the river and have been known to eat them.
In Slovenia, the Butchers’ Bridge in Ljubljana is covered with love locks and has become a tourist attraction. Padlocks are also attached to bridges in other parts of the country. Sources do not specify the exact ratio of those in lasting relationships to those for whom padlocks have not made this possible!
Janez Bogataj
