designer: Jean Morin
A weathercock is a 'wind vane' in the shape of a rooster often used on church steeples, being the highest point in a village, for showing the direction of the wind. Pope Gregory, in the 6th C, declared the cock/rooster to be a symbol of Christianity which may have led to the beginnings of the steeple tradition.
for roosters/chickens
5 comments:
I would never have thought of the weather vane. A clean cut stamp.
Oh! I never knew that the cock/rooster is a symbol of Christianity. Thanks for the info!
Very nice - I wish I had remembered the weather vane stamps the US issued a few years ago for my post.
A nice silvery bird. Now I'm wondering after your information how many times I've seen a weathercock with the actually bird as opposed to other symbols. I will be paying more attention now when I look up to a church roof.
A beautiful stamp (and also matching with the present Chinese Year of the Rooster!).
@Maria: The rooster originaly was a pre-christian symbol of protection. When christianization started, christians tended to keep some traditions of the to-be-christianized people, and there appeared to be a connection with the rooster to Petrus.
In the Dutch wiki there is some more information,
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windhaan (alas not in English, but if you'r interested you could read it via google.translate.com)
There are - at least in the Netherlands - also churches who have a swan instead of a rooster on top of the steeple, which is symbol for the Lutherian church.
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