Pen me a slice of wisdom!

It is celebrated as "Letter Writing Day," in Japan.  So, are you saying, "Well I'm not in Japan,"?  You are right, but when you see the beautiful stamps the Japanese post office issues each year on this occasion, you'll wish you were in Japan!

When I was growing up we did not have Email or Mobile Phones (No SMS!)  I wrote long letters to my grandparents and also to my friends who moved away.  When I moved away from a city to a new place I wrote "Group Letters" to all my friends in the old school.  I loved writing these letters, and my friends wrote to say they loved hearing about my life in the new place.

The best part about these letters was that you had to think carefully before you wrote (no backspace key!), you had to try and write in your best handwriting, and you could enclose drawings and pictures.

I feel very sad that the wonderful art of letter writing is dying.  We all write hasty brief notes to the people we care about and when we get replies as Email we read it a couple of times and either reply or hit "delete

This is why in Japan they honour the art of letter writing and encourage it by having a special day.  Every year July 23rd is celebrated as Letter Writing Day.  Some Japanese people celebrate 23rd of each month as letter writing day.

In addition to issuing special stamps, the Japanese Post Office conducts classes on letter writing and in big cities they even have special classes on writing letters to international friends.

Our Indian Post Office too has started issuing some very special and pretty stamps to mark various occasions and in honour of special persons.  Why don't you try to get some of these stamps and write some "handwritten" letters? 

World Friendship Day this year is on August 2nd.  Also, the second Sunday in September in Sunday is celebrated as Grandparents Day in many parts of the world.  These might be good days to start writing letters and perhaps you could even get interested in the hobby of philately, or stamp collecting.

Another really interesting hobby is writing to a "Pen Pal."  A pen pal is someone you haven't met but write to, and you learn all about each other and their culture through letters.

As you can see letter writing is not only fun but you can even learn from it.  Thus it might be a great idea to start this hobby.  Have fun!!