We’re sure by now that you’ll have hatched your plans on where to celebrate Chinese New Year with the kids, you’ve got everything sorted with no need to wing it when it comes to your CNY prep, and that you are clucking with pride at the thought of your little ones in their brand new Cheongsams and Chinese mandarin collars. Yep, it’s the Year of the Rooster, and while we’re hoping not to ruffle your feathers with our fowl puns, and admit we still don’t know whether the chicken or the egg came first, we’ve found 10 fun rooster and chicken facts you never knew (in no particular pecking order…)
1. We’ve been teaching our kids all about Chinese New Year, and the Chinese Zodiac. The rooster features at number 10 of 12 in the zodiac, and is the only bird included amongst the animal representations. Rooster humans are thought to be loyal, proud and hardworking, but just a little bit cocky too!
2. Famous roosters include Rudyard Kipling, Groucho Marx, Bob Marley, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Wagner, Bette Midler and Eric Clapton.
3. Roosters have a paltry (or poultry!) number of taste buds! Us humans get to work our way through a feast of delicious Asian food by using 10,000 taste buds, whereas gourmet dishes would be wasted on a chook: they have just 30 taste buds!
4. While the poor ol’ rooster may not have the taste sensations to enjoy the best burger in town (and let’s face it: that would be a bit weird), they do have eyesight that definitely trumps ours: they can see ultraviolet light plus an entire extra sector of the light spectrum. Cool!
5. Looking for a new and unique sport to try with the kiddos? How about a rooster crowing contest? This is a sport already popular in countries including Germany, Indonesia and Japan, and the winning bird is the one that crows for the longest on comp day! You couldn’t make this stuff up.
6. We’re big fans of sharing classic children’s stories with our little ones, but did you know that ancient Greek tales tell of roosters being a creature to fear, with even lions cowering in their wake? Read Aesop’s Fables’ The Lion and the Elephant for conclusive proof…
7. We love a good superstition, so weren’t surprised to find out that roosters have a long history of instilling the heebie jeebies in the masses. (Those flappy bits on their necks are a bit creepy). Along with the black cat, a black rooster was believed in medieval times to be a symbol of witchcraft and vice!
8. If these birds got wind of their numbers they could just decide to take over: there are 3 chooks to every human, and the chicken population is estimated to be around 24 billion worldwide!
9. While the dazzling temples of Singapore adorn themselves with gold and gem stones, Christian churches often place a rooster on the roof, but why? Well, a very long time ago (ninth century to be precise), Pope Gregory decreed that a cockerel be perched on every steeple as a symbol of repentance and resurrection. Fake cocks we would add, not real roosters.
10. Who are you callin’ chicken? Turns out that this insult is way off: chickens have a seriously scary relative (and no we’re not talking mother-in-laws). Scientists have found a big genetic link between the humble chicken and Tyrannosaurus Rex! T-Rex nuggets anyone?