EXHIBITIONS
Stamp Feest van de Vrijzinnige Jeugd, submitted by Maxime Opsomer
On 18 May 1974, the Regie der Posterijen - Régie des Postes (the Belgian postal services) published its first secular humanist postage stamp. 5.5 million stamps were printed under the name “Jeugdfestival 1974” (“Youth Festival 1974) for the Feesten van de Vrijzinnige Jeugd – Fêtes de la Jeunesse Laïque (a rite of passage for secular humanist 12-year-olds).
The stamp was based on a poster design by the Brussels artist Serge Creuz. Creuz designed, among other things, a number of pavilions for the iconic world exhibition in 1958 and the Belgian Auschwitz Monument in 1982.
The two engravings that were made before the stamp was printed were made by Jean Malvaux of Brussels. His workshop was a family business, established in 1899. It would continue to exist until 1996, when the company went under due to a lack of modernisation. The stamp itself was printed in a stamp printing works in Mechelen.
