ROOSTER: Why are roosters on weathervanes?
Did someone at some point in time have an affinity for roosters and it stuck? We turned to the Farmers Almanac https://www.farmersalmanac.com/why-are-roosters-on-weathervanes to see what they had to say.
First, an explanation: “Originally, people tied strings or cloth to the tops of buildings so that they could see which way the wind was blowing. Later, banners became a popular ornament, and that’s where we get the ‘vane’ in weathervane; an Old English word that meant ‘banner’ or ‘flag.’”
They’ve been around a very long time.
“One of the earliest examples of an actual weathervane — not simply a piece of cloth or a banner — was atop the Tower of the Winds, a First Century B.C. octagonal tower in Athens, Greece that was topped by a bronze wind vane in the shape of Triton, the sea god. This vane was designed so that Triton, who was holding a rod in his hand, would turn so that the rod pointed in the direction of the blowing wind.”
Neat, but what about the rooster? It seems that it’s a religious symbol that came about from the story of St. Peter after the Last Supper.
“In the biblical passages describing these events, it was said that Peter would deny Jesus three times ‘before the rooster crowed.’ Because of this, the rooster became known to Christians as the symbol of St. Peter.
“Sometime between 590 and 604 A.D., Pope Gregory I, took this a step farther, declaring that the rooster, emblem of St. Peter, was the most suitable symbol for Christianity. It is thought that this declaration led to the first roosters appearing on top of weathervanes.”
