About This Stamp
In 2016, the U.S. Postal Service® celebrates the joyous festival of Diwali, which is also known as Deepavali. One of the most important annual Hindu events, the holiday celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Spanning five days each autumn, it is considered by some to be the start of the new year.
The stamp features an image of a traditional diya against a background of glimmering gold and flower petals. “Diwali” in white type is featured underneath the diya. The words “FOREVER” and “USA” appear in white type across the bottom.
Diwali is a shortened version of the Sanskrit word Deepavali, which roughly translates as “a necklace of lights.” During Diwali, flickering oil-wick lamps called diyas dot the homes of observers around the world.
Before the festival, many Hindus go shopping, clean their homes, open their doors and windows, create intricate rangoli, a vibrant floor pattern traditionally made from materials such as rice powder, colored sand, and flower petals, and light diyas with hopes that Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, will visit. In some regions of India, people gamble and play games, just as Hindu lore says that deity Shiva did. On the festive main day of the holiday, families pray to Lakshmi, dress up in their best clothes, enjoy lavish feasts and sweets, exchange gifts, and light fireworks. Diwali also marks the new year for people in Gujarat and a few other states in India.
Diwali is an important festival in several religions. Buddhists honor ancient Indian Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism. Jains commemorate the teacher Mahavira's attainment of liberation from the cycle of life and death. Sikhs celebrate the freeing of guru Hargobind from captivity.
On the Hindu calendar, Diwali falls on the eve of or on the new moon that occurs between mid-October and mid-November. In 2016, the main day of the festival will be celebrated on October 29 (for South Indians) and October 30 (for North Indians).
Sally Andersen-Bruce shot the photograph of the diya. Greg Breeding designed the stamp and William J. Gicker served as the project's art director.
The Diwali stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director
William Gicker
William Gicker served as Director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service from 2020 until his retirement in 2023. In that position he oversaw stamp development, stamp products and exhibitions, stamp manufacturing, stamp fulfillment, and the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC).
Gicker began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1998. Initially assistant editor of USA Philatelic, the quarterly stamp catalog produced by Stamp Services, he soon became editor where he oversaw the catalog’s award-winning program until 2013.
Named creative director of stamps in 2001, Gicker became manager and creative director of Stamp Development in 2015. Working closely with Postal Service art directors and CSAC, he managed the creative development and quality control of more than 800 stamp issuances and 1,700 individual stamp designs.
He has served as art director for some of the most popular stamps issued by the Postal Service: the five-year Art of Disney series; Star Wars; Holy Family; Harry Potter; and Hot Wheels. As both art director and designer, Gicker lists among his many stamps, Holiday Baubles; the first international rate Global stamp in 2013; and the Gifts of Friendship joint issuance with Japan. He was also art director for the first stamp to celebrate Diwali, eight more Global Forever® stamps, and several Christmas Madonna and Child issuances, the most recent in 2024.
A native of Pennsylvania, Gicker graduated from West Chester University with a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature. He and his family live in Washington, DC.
Stamp Designer
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.
Photographer
Sally Andersen-Bruce
Sally Andersen-Bruce, a 1973 honors graduate of the Art Center of Design in Pasadena, California, has been president and sole proprietor of a photography business for more than two decades. From her studio in Connecticut and on location in many foreign countries, she has produced photographic art for corporate executives, products, annual and financial reports, websites, and United States postage stamps.
She has, as well, worked with the Museum of International Folk Art Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont; and the Strong Museum, Rochester, New York. In the late 1990s, she lived in Seoul, South Korea, while documenting global design workshops created for Samsung multimedia by product designers James Miho and Gordon Bruce. Assignments from clients such as IBM, Polaroid, AT&T, Pepsi, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal have taken her to India, Germany, England, Italy, France, Sweden, and Mexico.
Andersen-Bruce's photographs have appeared on numerous U.S. stamps, among them Classic American Dolls (1997), Neuter and Spay (2002), Nutcrackers (2008), Animal Rescue: adopt a shelter pet (2010), Weather Vanes (2012), and Gingerbread Houses (2013). Most recently, her photographs appeared on the Jack-o'-lanterns and Diwali stamps, first issued in 2016.