Two messengers met on the straight and stormy road, one running with fleet foot, one riding with swift steed.
“I am Hermod,” the rider said in greeting, “and I go to beseech dread Hela to return Frigg’s favoured son, Baldr, to the realm of the living – for her grief is terrible and we all suffer greatly.”
“I am Hermes,” the runner said in return, “and I go to beseech dread Hades to return Demeter’s only daughter, Persephone, to the realm of the living – for her grief is terrible and the earth suffers greatly.”
“What a terrific and terrible thing a mother is,” Hermod mused.
“What a lonely and hungry thing death is,” Hermes mused.
Two messengers continued on the straight and stormy road, down to the world below.
one of the oldest and arguably the most important museum in Brazil is burning to the ground as we speak. home to the portuguese royal family from 1808 to 1821, the Museu Nacional stored fossils, meteorites, pre-historic human skeletons and a variety of artefacts related to natural history. it holds two centuries of latin & brazilian history and now it’s all gone.
some of the things that are now lost forever: the largest collection of egyptian artefacts in latin america; the skeleton of the largest flying reptile ever found in Brazil; the oldest human fossil ever found in the country, named “Luzia” (over 11.000 y.o) and other 20 million extremely important relics and researches just burned to the ground. never to be seen again.
thanks to our government, of course, who didn’t want to pay the museum the necessary funds to make the essencial maintenances since 2014 (which by the way, costed less than a supreme federal court judge’s sallary: R$520 in a year).
another sad instance where the state’s indifference towards culture and history becomes painfully obvious. this is a massive blow to our cultural legacy.
all that in our independe week. happy independe for us, brazilians, who just lost our history and culture in a fire caused by ignorance and indifference.
in case you’re wondering, this is what the museum used to look like:
this is what it looks like now:
thousands of years of culture lost. happy independence week.
“Authorities say the fire lasted for six hours, causing irreparable damage. To put it bluntly: it’s all gone. A meteorite, that can sustain incredibly high temperatures, was found intact. But other than that, there are apparently no other pieces left. It would not be an understatement to call the Museu Nacional the Brazilian equivalent of the Louvre or the British Museum.”
here is some of the international news saying on this, because most articles and videos are all in portuguese, u can check some of the news in english: (here *new york times*) (here *bbc news*) (here *le monde* for french speaking readers) (here *shorouk news* for people who speak arabian) (here *azteca news* for spanish) (here *corriere della sera* for italian).
it was a natural science and historic museum, there were all sorts of important researches and relics. all burned. this was our culture. our history. the first human fossil found in brazil (mentioned above, Luzia) was so important for science, since it proved that way before indigenous tribes existed in Brazil, there were black people.
this is the place where our first constitution was made and the declaration of independence was signed. our independe day is this friday. heartbroken.
There are people who will tell you that you shouldn’t say thank you to the fairies, that it offends or upsets them. I always believed this although I can’t even remember now where I learned it. I hear people now saying it doesn’t matter and you can say it, or they have and nothing bad has happened. I mean, etiquette is one of those things that does vary. So sure maybe some fairies are more lenient about it. We do have stories about them reacting badly to being thanked, like the Brownies who pitch fits and destroy things and leave. Me I prefer to err on the side of ‘company manners’ as my mother used to put it. Why don’t we say thank you? Interesting thing about that. This only applies to English speakers btw. If you look into it turns out that saying thank you is rooted in two things. Etymologically the word is about acknowledging a debt. And culturally the idea of saying thank you began as something only said to higher ranking people, to acknowledge when they did something for you that you were grateful for, that you would owe them for. So saying thank you to the fairies is acknowledging you owe them something. And maybe in some cases, when those fairies aren’t the Gentry but something lower ranking in Fairy they find it offensive or feel they are being mocked to be thanked. In my experience it’s never a good idea to be in unspecified debt to the fair folk, or to anger them, so I think I’ll stick with not saying thank you.
Cows lay down before a storm. (The tighter their group the worse the storm will be.)
Sheep seek higher ground before a storm.
Hornets build their nests higher if the winter is going to be harsher.
Tough skin on apples and thick corn husks mean very cold winters.
A snowy winter means a plentiful harvest the following Autumn.
Leaves on trees (maples being one) turn their undersides up before a thunder storm.
The number of harsh fogs in August will be equal to harsh storms in winter.
If you want to hear tons more and learn about where some of these folk sayings originated please support and check out the New World Witchery Podcast. It’s free and very informative.
woolandcoffee 