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Issue Name
:
Centenary of the Modern Olympic Games Commemorative Stamps
Issue
Date :
1996-06-23
Perforation
:
14 x 14.5
Denomination
:
2.00 Baht, 3.00 Baht , 5.00 Baht , 9.00 Baht
Details :
The Olympic Games, mankind's greatest sports competition, is an age old tradition from ancient Greece which originated more than a thousand years before Christ and was not revived until fifteen centuries later.
In 1889, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a well known French educator perceiving the importance to the ancient Olympic Games, started, "It is only the Olympic Games that can act as a catalyst to unite all the different nations closely together". With that in mind, he initiated a revival of the games which had been abolised since 393 A.D and invited several dignitaries from England, France and the United States of America to take part in the organizing of the games over a period of four years. Several conferences were held, the last one on June 25, 1894, when it was deemed that an International Olympic Committee be established and that the games should take place once every four years as in ancient times. The conference also honored the country which originated the games by desiginating Greece as the host of the first Olympaid of the modern cycle which took place at the sports stadium in Athens in 1896. Adhering to the traditional spirit of the ancient Olympics, the present-day games retained the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame in its exact form. At the beginning of every game, a ceremony takes place at the top of Mount Olympus where vestal virgins ignite the Olympic torch by a glass lens and the flame is subsequently distributed to all the other member nations around the world. The country hosting the games carries the torch through the intervening countries by relays of runners until the sacred fire is lit in a large urn at the ceremony heralding the opening of the games. The original flame at Mount Olympus, must not be extinguished for the entire duration of that particular game.
The Baron had this to say for the modern Olympic games, "The essence of the Olympic Games is not about victory but it is about participating in competitions. Our goals in life are not only to keep on fighting until we attain victory but it is more improtant that we fight in a correct manner". Later on he also designed the Olympic flag as a symbol of the games. The flag, which is white and rectangular in shape, has at its centre, five rings of different colours entwined with each other. Each of the rings signifies the connections and relations of the five continents of the world.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin passed away on September 2, 1937. His burial place is in the present locale of the City of Olympia.
Size :
45 x 27 mm
Printer :
Thai British Security Printing Public Company Limited, Thailand
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