Secret of the Rooster's Crow

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He is an icon of the morning. In most every rural scene he crows to greet the dawn. He crosses cultural and geographical boundaries as the harbinger of daylight. He says “Cock-a-doodle-do” in English, “Kikeriki” in German, “Kuklooku” in Urdu, and “Ko-ke-kok-ko-o” in Japanese. Biblical scenes center on his call, and he takes top billing in the folklore of countless cultures.

In Southeast Asia, Hmong tell children this tale: A long time ago, when the world was new, the sky held nine suns. The land was hot, the river dried up, and crops began to die. The people got together and decided they should ask their best archer to shoot the suns out of the sky. The next day, one by one, he shot the suns with an arrow, until only one remained. Frightened, the last-remaining sun hid behind a mountain where the archer could not reach her. Soon the people realized their mistake. The world grew cold, and the crops did not grow. The people spoke gently to the hiding sun to coax her back out. They also asked many animals and songbirds to try, but none could bring the sun back. Finally, someone suggested the rooster, because he was fearless and would not give up. Agreeing to help, the rooster crowed three times and the sun, believing she was safe, rose from behind the mountain. To show gratitude to the rooster, the sun placed a bit of the morning sky on the top of his head.

But why is it that the rooster gets so excited about dawn’s rosy fingers? Does he take his job as the farm’s alarm clock too seriously? Does he just have something important to say?

Turns out the answer is simpler than you might think. First, roosters crow all the time. The connection with the sun coming up is a misconception. “They might, on occasion, crow right at dawn. But it’s just a coincidence,” Pete Alcorn (TransitionsAbroad.com) says. “Roosters crow whenever they feel like it: morning, noon and night, not to mention afternoon, evening and the parts of the day that don’t have names.”