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January 14, 2020

3356 ROMANIA (Bucharest) - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 1 December 2018

3356 The twelfth postcard of the series
"100 years since the Great Union of Romania" (12/12)
- the Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade
on National Day parade


The last meeting of the Romanian postcrossers in the year of the Centenary of the Great Union took place on Bucharest, of course on December 1, the National Holiday of Romania. Mihnea Răducu chose for these 12th postcard an image from the parade that took place with this occasion, featuring the Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade. This unit is a primarily ceremonial, as well as combat unit of the Romanian Land Forces, and was established on 1 July 1860 through a decree issued by Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the 1st Honor Guard battalion of Tirailleurs, which ensured the security of Royal palaces.

It was renamed on 31 august 1860 as the Battalion of Hunters, and from 1941 was called the Royal Guard Battalion, abolished by the communist government after the abdication of King Michael I (December 30, 1947), in 1948. Following the Romanian Revolution the unit was revived as a battalion, and since 1995 it has been given the honorary name of Michael the Brave, in order to restore the connection with the old guard units of the Romanian army. In 2001 the battalion was upgraded to the level of a brigade, and consists of two battalions for ceremonies and a military police battalion.

The Guard Regiment's outfit is inspired by the ceremony uniform from the interwar period and includes:
•  kepi of navy blue fabric, the side has a yellow band above which are fixed circular and vertical stripes, indicating the rank, and in front is mounted a tricolor cockade fastened with a cranberry;
•  blue tunic for winter and red for summer, with a row of buttons, simple or tasseled clover-shaped epaulettes, having embroidered number 30, looped golden braiding, badge with the regiment's emblem on the right sleeve, pafta of red fabric on which is embroidered with golden the "guard ornament", respectively five stylized lily cups, red collar with the same embroidery up to the shoulder seam, the back being yellow;
• silk thread belt, with metallic pleat, stamping Romania's coat of arms;
• black boots or shoes;
• trousers, for the boot or for the shoe, navy blue in color for summer and gray for winter, with golden stripes of fabric sewn into the seam;
• black fur cap, Michael the Brave model, with all the accessories of the hat;
• the blue coat for winter, on two rows of buttons, having the same accessories as the kepi.

At the initiative of Mihnea Răducu, between December 1 2017 and December 1 2018, so in the year in which the Romanians celebrated the centenary of the Great Union, took place every month a meeting of the Romanian postcrossers, and at each meeting has been edited a postcard to recall this exceptional event for the Romanians. 


About the stamps
The first stamp, depicting the Edelweiss / Leontopodium alpinum, is part of the series Flora from Protected Areas  - The Rodna Mountains, about which I wrote here.


The second stamp is part of the series Famous Composers (a Romania-Hungary joint stamp issue), designed by George Ursachi and issued on June 8, 2006, on the occasion of celebrating 60 years since the resumption of the diplomatic relations between Romania and Hungary.
George Enescu - It's on the postcard 3356
Béla Bartók
The two postage stamps exhibiting the two great composers, together with two of their own musical fragments, have the same face value of RON 1.20. They were chosen because:
• they were both born in the same year (1881) and in the same geographic area;
• they both dedicated their entire life to music;
• they were inspired by the Romanian folklore;
• Bela Bartók accomplished the largest selection of Romanian carols;
• they had concerts on the greatest scenes of the world, many times together;
• they both were members of the Romanian Academy;
• each one of them died far away from their native country (Bartók in New York, in 1945, and Enescu in Paris, in 1955).

References
Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade - Wikipedia 
Regimentul 30 Gardă „Mihai Viteazul”. Garda permanentă de la catafalcul Regelui Mihai (rom) - Libertatea website
Regimentul 30 Gardă "Mihai Viteazul" şi-a prezentat noua uniformă de  Cristian Ionescu (rom) - Active News website

Sender: Mihnea Răducu and the Romanian postcrossers who participated to the Postcrossing Meetup which held in Bucharest on December 1, 2018.
Sent from Bucharest (Bucharest / Romania) on 04.12.2018
Edited by Postcardsmarket - 100 years since the Great Union of Romania - Series 12/12

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