Year of the Ox Stamps Celebrates Lunar New Year Forever First Class Postage Stamps

The ox appears here as a decorated mask rather than as an animal - horns curving out from a blue face patterned with motifs drawn from Asian textiles, a star at the center of the forehead, purple flowers along one side for the spring that Lunar New Year announces. Camille Chew made the artwork and Antonio Alcalá was the art director, continuing the series that began with the rat mask the year before. The selvage carries line drawings of all twelve zodiac animals, with the ox picked out in red.

The Year of the Ox ran from February 2021 to the end of January 2022, and mail for it moves in a narrow window - red envelopes, cards and invitations all in the two or three weeks beforehand. People born in an ox year keep sheets for the sake of it, and collectors buy the pane whole because of the zodiac border. The ox is the second animal in the twelve-year cycle, so the next one comes round in 2033.