Gallic rooster

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Gallic rooster on top of a war memorial in La Rochelle

The Gallic rooster (

rooster is also the symbol of the Wallonia region and the French Community of Belgium
.

France

Gallic rooster on the garden gate of the Élysée Palace in Paris, the official residence of the President of the French Republic.

During the times of Ancient Rome,

samildánach led to the widespread identification of Caesar's Mercury as Lugus and thus also to the sacred cockerel, the Gallic rooster, as an emblem of France.[citation needed
]

Its association with France dates back from the

rooster, or cockerel. Its use, by the enemies of France, dates to this period, originally a pun to make fun of the French,[1] the association between the rooster and the Gauls/French was developed by the kings of France for the strong Christian symbol that the rooster represents: prior to being arrested, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed on the following morning. At the rooster's crowing, Peter remembered Jesus's words. Its crowing at the dawning of each new morning made it a symbol of the daily victory of light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil. It is also an emblem of the Christian's attitude of watchfulness and readiness for the sudden return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment of humankind. That is why, during the Renaissance, the rooster became a symbol of France as a Catholic state and became a popular Christian image on weather vanes, also known as weathercocks.[citation needed
]

Gallic rooster atop a World War I memorial, Liomer (Somme).

The popularity of the Gallic rooster as a national personification faded away until its resurgence during the French Revolution (1789). The republican historiography completely modified the traditional perception of the origins of France. Until then, the royal historiography dated the origins of France back to the baptism of Clovis I in 496, the "first Christian king of France". The republicans rejected this royalist and Christian origin of the country and trace the origins of France back to the ancient Gaul. Although purely apocryphal, the rooster became the personification of the early inhabitants of France, the Gauls.

The Gallic rooster, colloquially named

war memorials
.

The jersey of the French national rugby team, with the traditional Gallic rooster symbol

Today, it is often used as a national

Footix as its mascot. Two decades later, the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, also hosted by France, featured a young anthropomorphic female chicken known as ettie (officially in lower case) as its mascot, with ettie being depicted as the daughter of Footix. The France national rugby league team
are known as the Chanteclairs, referring to the cockerel's song.

The popularity of the symbol extends into business through several notable brands:

  • French tricolour
    as its logo,
  • the logo of Pathé, a French-born, now international company of film production and distribution,
  • Ayam Brand, an Asia-wide food company based in Singapore founded by a Frenchman in 1892 formerly known as "A. Clouet & Co.", the name came from the Malay word ayam meaning "chicken" in reference to the rooster adorning many of the Clouet products at the time.[4]

Another heraldic animal officially used by the French nation was the

Salamander which was used under Francis I of France
.

Wallonia

The Walloon rooster.
Walloon rooster.

The Gallic rooster was adopted as the symbol of

bold rooster" (coq hardi), raising its claws, instead of the "crowing rooster" that is traditionally depicted in France. This symbol, also known as the Walloon rooster, was officially adopted as the symbol of Wallonia (in 1998) and the French Community of Belgium
(in 1991).

Cocorico

In France, the

crowing sound, "cocorico" (cock-a-doodle-doo), is sometimes used as an expression of national pride, sometimes ironically.[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-140-45516-8
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0195089615
    .
  3. ^ Caesar, Julius. "Chapter 17" . Commentarii de Bello Gallico [Commentaries on the Gallic War]. Vol. Book 6. Translated from Latin by William Alexander McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (1869) – via Wikisource.
  4. ^ "How a symbol of France ended up on the cans of Asia's Ayam Brand". South China Morning Post. 30 June 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  5. ^ "The symbols of Empire". Fondation Napoléon. June 2004. Retrieved 18 December 2023.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gallic rooster.
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