Summary:Darcy and Sif have a brief chat about their respective holidays and why they just don't match what Sif is used to. Darcy proves she's a cornucopia of historical trivia. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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That quiet moment between the rush that is Christmas and the frantic stupid of a ball dropping that is New Years. This is the quiet that exsits in the Embassy. It's a quiet that lets Darcy catch up on emails, sort mail, and reordanize her work space for teh coming year. Right now, she's by the cupboard in which she keeps the coffee and tea periphenalia. The doors are open and she's got the full contents scattered on the counter in front of her. Airpods in her ears, Darcy jams out while sorting bags of tea and sugar packets.
Yule passed before this insanity that so many Midgardians participate in called Christmas. She was baffled as to why so many of Yule's traditions were being observed as part a completely different and much newer religion. Having why explained to her did not help it make any more sense. But it's done, and now Midgardians are preparing for ANOTHER holiday that she's always recognized as part of Yule.
Midgard makes no sense.
Passing by the cupboard, she sees Darcy there and pauses to offer a polite greeting. "Miss Lewis. Hello."
Head bopping, Darcy doesn't immediately react to Sif's greeting. Not until she knocks a box over with her elbow, turns to try to catch it before it topples off the counter, misses, and sends it skittering on the floor toward Sif. The asgardian's boot stops it, and Darcy, whose eyes track up toward Sif's face. Darcy reaches up to pull out an earbud, and music fills the air about her from the tiny speaker.
"Oh! Hiya, Sif," Darcy chimes, hand grabbing at the box before she straightens up with a grin. "Merry Christmas. Happy New Year," is added. Becauset that's whacha DO this time of year.
Sif frowns faintly when Darcy doesn't respond immediately, but then sees the little black objects in the woman's ears and realizes she likely wasn't heard. And then clumsiness happens and she's crouching down to retrieve the fallen box of tea from where it stopped by her foot. Darcy snags it up first though so she straightens up again.
"Hello. And… happy holidays?" She was told that was an equally appropriate greeting that encompasses most of the varying celebrations going on around Yuletime. Hopefully she wasn't misled. "Were your holidays pleasant?"
With a light double-tap, Darcy pauses the music, pulls the other earbud free, and drops them both in a pocket. Judging by how Darcy just smiled as she accepted the happy holiday, Sif was not led astray.
"Happy holidays. Yes, actually. Nice and calm with just the right amount of stupid crzy family bullshit. You?" Darcy replies pleasantly, turning back to continue her sort.
"I spent Yule with Astryd and her family," Sif replies. "It was quite pleasant, and my attempt to create a Midgardian treat to contribute to the Yuletide dinner was … not as I had hoped." Unless she was trying to make charcoal briquettes, in which case she succeeded perfectly.
"Perhaps you can explain… why is the modern Midgardian new year not in keeping with the winter solstice?" Because it seems to be at a non-sensical time, at least to her mind.
Ah, the age old 'baking a desert from scratch and ruining it'. Darcy knows it well, and has learned to just buy a pie and let the hostess heat it up. She smile, nodding her understanding and sympathy both.
"We're gonna blame Julius Ceasar. He was a Roman Emperor that didn't like the way his empire was handling its calendar, and so made a new one. January was named for the Roman god Janus, god of doors and gates, so in a political move, he made the first day of the month named for the god of gateways be the day that marks the gateway into a new year. Also, because that's when the new counselors took office, so that helped things line up," Darcy rambles, pausing in teh middle of returning the new consolidated tea bags back into the cupboard over her head. She turns to look at Sif over a shoulder, a littel grin on her face.
"In short? It was a political move to help rule the world. So, if you know anyone looking to seriously make their own calendar, you may want to make sure they don't also have plans for world domination."
Sif appears to be absorbing that information, perhaps comparing it to something. "When did this calendar change occur? I do not remember this 'Roman'." Considering the time frame, if she visited Earth at any point, it was likely after the fall of Rome, but then there were outlying parts of northern Europe/Scandinavia that would not have heard of it at that point. Perhaps she should ask Loki, he would remember.
"I consider myself fortunate that I cannot think of anyone seeking to create their own calendar." And good thing, she's confused enough already.
"It happened a could of times, actually. Julius created the Julian Calendar around the birth of Christ, like two thousand years ago, but in like the 13th century the pope hated that Easter was getting fucked on dates so he made another change to it and rolled out the Gregorian calendar which was just the Julian Calendar with a day added in every few years. It's the one we use right now, but really? I like Parker's amendment to the Gregorian Calendar. It won't drift off the solar year for like a billion years, which is just damn nerdy fun, if you ask me," Darcy rambles happily, putting the last of ht tea away and turning to regard Sif.
"If I track your myths right? You'd have shown up like… right before each calendar shift. And truth be told, the Romans really didn't get all the way up to the Norse. Britania, yes, but further north? Nah. Ya'll kicked their asses. I think. Maybe. I'll have to read up some more."
At that, Sif can't help but chuckle softly. "Please do, and tell me what I have missed."