Christmas Seals

Background

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that spread widely in Europe in the late nineteenth century. Many people died of it, and the toll among children was heavy. Christmas seals are stamp-like labels issued around Christmas to raise funds for the fight against tuberculosis. They have no postal value. People affix seals alongside postage stamps on Christmas cards and letters as a sign that they have contributed. The red double-barred cross that appears on the seals, called boksipja ("double cross") in Korean, symbolizes the anti-tuberculosis movement. Under the official Korean rules for transcribing loanwords, the standard spelling of the Korean term is keuriseumaseu sil; however, the issuing body, the Korean National Tuberculosis Association, continues to use the long-established spelling ssil.

History

Beginnings in Denmark (1904)

The world's first Christmas seal appeared in Denmark on December 10, 1904. Einar Holbøll, a postal clerk in Copenhagen, conceived the idea upon seeing the Christmas mail piling up at the end of the year: if an inexpensive seal were attached to each piece of mail, funds could be raised to fight tuberculosis. He is said to have issued the first seal with the support of King Christian IX. Some sources describe him as a postmaster. The practice soon spread to neighboring countries. Seals were first sold in the United States in 1907 and, in Asia, in the Philippines in 1910.

Sherwood Hall and Korea's First Seal (1932–1940)

Korea's first seal was issued in 1932 in Haeju, Hwanghae Province, by the Canadian-born medical missionary Sherwood Hall, son of the missionary physician Rosetta Hall. In 1928 Hall had founded the Haeju Guse (Salvation) Sanatorium, a tuberculosis sanatorium in Haeju, and was running it at the time. He observed that many people regarded tuberculosis as incurable and gave up on treatment altogether. He is therefore said to have introduced the seals to raise operating funds for the sanatorium and to broaden public education about tuberculosis.

Hall initially intended to use a turtle ship as the design, but the Japanese authorities refused to approve it, and the design was changed to a picture of Namdaemun (Sungnyemun). Subsequent seals continued to feature scenes of Korean customs; the 1937 seal, for example, was painted by the artist Kim Ki-chang and showed children spinning tops. As Japanese surveillance of missionaries and foreigners intensified, Hall was forcibly expelled in 1940, which ended his seal program after nine issues in all.

After Liberation (1953– )

From the final years of Japanese colonial rule through the Korean War, the issuing of seals was interrupted for a time. During that period, Dr. Moon Chang-mo, who had assisted Hall, is reported to have led an effort to issue seals under the name of the Korean Double Cross Society. Since the founding of the Korean National Tuberculosis Association on November 6, 1953, the association has issued seals every year to raise funds for tuberculosis control. The association's first seal depicted a girl wearing a saekdong jeogori, a jacket with rainbow-striped sleeves. The turtle ship design that Hall had originally envisioned did not appear on a seal until 1967.

Results and Influence

From the 1960s through the 1980s, seals became so widespread that buying them was regarded almost as a moral obligation. Affixing seals to Christmas cards and New Year's cards was a familiar part of the year-end season, and schools frequently took part in fundraising as groups. Since the 2000s, efforts have been made to update the seals, such as featuring athletes and popular children's characters in the designs. However, letter writing has declined, compulsory sales through public institutions have been prohibited, and public perceptions of tuberculosis have changed. For these reasons, the amount raised has been on a downward trend.

Assessment

Christmas seals are an example of an initiative that began in Protestant medical missions and grew beyond its religious origins to become a fundraising campaign embraced by Korean society as a whole. Their Christian roots are evident in that they began at a mission hospital's tuberculosis sanatorium and linked the celebration of Christmas with helping sick neighbors. Scholars have also studied the rejection of the turtle ship design and the circumstances of Hall's expulsion as illustrations of the control exercised over missionaries during the Japanese colonial period. Today the seals are regarded as a nonreligious public-interest fundraiser, and many people are unaware that they originated in Christianity.