Some time back, I talked about barns and why they were painted red. One thing that often/usually existed on older barns was a weathervane. At one time, these things were considered essential for farmers to have… today they’re more decorative, but they do still perform the same function and sometimes I think they are about as accurate as weather satellites when it comes to predicting the weather.
So you guessed it — today’s topic is weathervanes. The components of a weathervane are the vane, the mast, and the directionals, which display the four points of the compass — North, South, East and West. The vane usually resembles an arrow shape, often with some decorative figure on top. The vane rotates freely and points in the direction the wind is coming from. The directionals remain stationary. So if the arrow is pointing north, that means the are coming from the north indicating a “north wind.”
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 — it’s an Old English word that meant “banner” or “flag.”
Probably the first real weathervane (not simply a piece of cloth) was on top of the Tower of the Winds, a First Century B.C. octagonal tower in Athens, Greece. The tower was topped by a bronze wind vane in the shape of Triton, the sea god. The 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. Obviously weathervanes work best when they’re placed on top of the tallest structure available because there’s less obstacles to obstruct the wind. Before long, weathervanes like the one on top of the Tower of the Winds spread throughout Europe, often on top of towers and church steeples. Usually those on churches were adorned with a cross or an image of a patron saint…. but they all served the same purpose — to turn and point in the direction of the wind.
It seems that he most popular weathervane “topper” now is the rooster. Since church steeples were often the highest structure around they were popular spots for weathervanes. The rooster is an important symbol in Christian churches — primarily because of the story of St. Peter after the Last Supper. The Bible writings tell us that Peter would deny Jesus three times “before the rooster crowed.” The rooster became known to many Christians as the symbol of St. Peter.
In the 9th century, Pope Nicholas decreed that all churches must display the rooster on their steeples or domes as a symbol of Peter’s betrayal of Jesus. In accordance with the decree, churches started using weathervanes with the rooster. We have a rooster at our church — not on a weathervane, but on a pole. As centuries passed, the rule about placing roosters atop churches went by the wayside — but roosters stayed on weathervanes.
So today, you mostly see weathervanes on Barns — usually one of the taller structures on a farm, and many of them are adorned with a rooster. I’m not sure why roosters are that popular for weathervanes on farms, but a rooster is a farm animal and the shape of a rooster (especially their tail) makes it the perfect shape to catch the wind. If you wanted to get dramatic about it, you could say that the rooster is the first to see the rising sun and announce the day — it represents the victory of light over darkness while warding off evil….
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