Roosters, Rude Awakenings and Time

 

Alas, we have thousands of photos from
Thailand, but apparently, we didn't keep any
rooster pics. This chicken strolling with her
pig friend is as close as we can come.

Studying the Karen language, we learned that the Karen had a system of telling time based on the crowing cycles of roosters through the night and wee hours. From what I recall, insomniacs among the Karen had detected a pattern of crowing throughout the night. There would be a first crowing, second, third, etc. Did the roosters of Jesus’s day have a similar pattern of crowing  that Jewish insomniacs had picked up on as well? If so, Peter would have recognized what the time would be at his third denial. In language lessons, we didn’t spend a lot of time or energy on the Karen rooster-based time telling as it was no longer very well known. I soon learned why.

I had my share of restless nights in Mae Sariang and with the thin walls, open windows, and numerous roosters in close proximity I was in a prime location to try and decipher the night crowing patterns of the Mae Sariang roosters. Whether covered in class or not, maybe I’d get so good at night time rooster based time telling, I could put away my watch.

So, I started to pay attention during my sleep interruptions. It was not unusual to be rudely awakened in the dead of night by a yodeling rooster so I’d check my watch. One awakening might be at midnight, another at 3:00 am, on another day it could be 1:00 am, on another day 5:00 am, on still another day, 2:00 am. Hmmm….The ancient Karen and Jewish insomniacs obviously were much better at detecting crowing patterns than I was. But I persisted – 12:30 am, 4:15, 2:12, 6:00, 1:45. I was learning that the dead of night was not really so dead and that roosters were crowing anytime I woke up. I was also learning that roosters were even worse insomniacs than the ancient Karen, Jews and me. Do roosters ever sleep?

But I was not learning to tell time. The biggest quandary was if I was awakened at 3:30 am was that the first crowing, second, third or what? Roosters had been crowing off and on all night. Which one was which? How do you tell one rooster’s crow from the next? Are they all on the same schedule? Hadn’t our neighbor’s rooster crowed three times already but the one across the street only once?

Another problem is that rooster crowing is a chain reaction within the greater rooster community. The one pattern I did discern is that if it was quiet in the dead of night, then before long, a rooster would crow just at the far edge of my hearing. Still far away, a neighboring rooster would hear it, feel obligated to crow which would be a signal to the next rooster, then the next and the next, and the next with each crowing getting gradually closer and louder. The crescendo would grow until finally our landlord’s roosters would sound off just under our window belting out every decibel they could muster. Then, the crowing would gradually drift off in the opposite direction and fade away.

What rooster started the chain of crowing? How far away was it? Did that rooster know the time and establish the first crowing, second crowing, third crowing, etc.? If so, what happened when that rooster wound up as dinner? How far in the other direction did the crowing go? Where and when did it end? I had more questions than patterns and the only certainty was that there were just a lot of roosters out there and none could tell time.

It didn’t get any better as another pattern I discerned was that roosters crow all day long as well as all night long. Throw in dawn, dusk and twilight crowing sessions and at least for me, I soon gave up my pattern discerning efforts and put renewed faith in my watch and clocks. I admire the wisdom and powers of observation of both the Jewish and Karen ancients, but for me, I had to give up on rooster crowing time telling.