Inventory & Interconnectedness of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Intangible heritage encompasses social customs, representations, rituals, traditions, expressions, special knowledge, and skills. It is carried by people, connects groups, and gives meaning and color to life and society. Initially, the stamp sheet appears overloaded, cluttered, and lively, a fact further enhanced by the continuous visual and color effect and the bright colors. However, this strongly emphasizes the interconnectedness of the heritage items.

Intangible cultural heritage, issue date Monday, September 16, 2024

Issue details: graphic designer Hans Gremmen from Amsterdam, print run of 100.000 sheets of 6 different stamps, printer Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé BV in Haarlem. 1) A blue pole with a wavy waterline depicts fierljeppen in Friesland, jumping as far as possible over a reasonably wide ditch using an exceptionally long pole. A run-up is necessary right from the start of the long jump. During the jump over the water, the jumper climbs as high as possible on the pole so that he can jump even further upon landing. 2) Yellow-colored artificial slices of cheese with holes. 3) The red-colored dahlia bush refers to a flower parade. 4) A blue checkered piece of fabric from Suriname serves as a pangi or wrap. 5) Colorful exploding rockets in yellow, red, and blue refer to consumer fireworks on New Year's Eve. 6) Black-and-white photo with partygoers represents the gabber culture, especially in the big cities. 7) A flock of pigeons on a sunny day represents pigeon racing. 8) The black-and-white photo of a cyclist struggling against the wind represents Dutch cycling culture. 9) Red and white squares on a board with matching colored stones are related to the game of draughts. 10) The saucepan refers to baking poffertjes in a poffertjes pan. 11) The shortened neon sign text represents the Chinese-Indonesian restaurant culture. 12) The illustration with insects relates to mythical spiders, which play a central role in the storytelling tradition (Anansi) of the Caribbean Netherlands. 13) The text of a hutspot recipe refers to the cooking of stamppot. Hutspot once played a life-saving leading role in Leiden. 14) The walking schedule on four yellow bars depicts the Nijmegen Four Days Marches. 15) Two text columns with dialectical expressions and meanings refer to the West Frisian dialect.

• Graphic designer Hans Gremmen gratefully made use of information from the Knowledge Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage Netherlands in Arnhem for the inventory. My feelings, emotions, and involvement played a prominent role in the selection of the interesting items.
• On the stamp sheet, everything flows into one another. On several stamps, the continuous image effect across the perforation is present, and rightly so. For in reality, the boundaries are not so clear. The subjects all have their own identity, but there is also overlap.
• The depicted items can be found throughout the Netherlands (stamps 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11) or in the regional Netherlands (stamps 1, 2, 3, 6, & 13), but in historical perspective they also relate to the 'Greater Netherlands' *) (stamps 4 & 12), when the Netherlands still possessed colonies in all continents for long or short periods. A migration flow of people from this variety of countries was already initiated then, which continues to this day.

*) The 'Greater Netherlands' has frequently appeared on postage stamps. In the Grenzeloos Nederland issue, which lasted for several years, numerous former Dutch overseas territories were featured, as well as in the currently available Beleef de natuur issue with flora and fauna from Bonaire.

• The diversity and versatility of the subjects are strikingly captured by making use of pictograms, photographs, illustrations, typography, patterns, and diagrams in various ways.
• Each individual stamp stands out better than in the overall picture of the stamp sheet.