Year of the Rat: Lunar New Year, Full Sheet of 20 x 32-Cent Postage Stamps, USA 1996, Scott 3060

These "Year of the Rat" stamps were issued on February 8, 1996, in San Francisco, California. Artist, Clarence Lee, of Honolulu, HI, created a distinctively modern and Chinese design with a paper-cut two dimensional look. A professional calligrapher, Lau Bun, wrote Kanji characters to state the name of each stamp on the left side. Kanji is a Japanese adaptation to Chinese characters and can be read by a variety of Asian groups from differing countries and cultures. The Chinese lunar cycle is based on a 12-year repeating cycle. According to legend, the signs of the Zodiac were determined when Buddha invited all the animals of the kingdom for a meeting. Only 12 animals showed up: the rooster, dog, boar, rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, ram and monkey. Buddha gave each animal its own year; thus, it is believed that people will possess the nature and characteristics of the animal that represents the year in which they are born.