Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah
82 degrees predicted for today – coffee outside in the early morning sun – clear sky, birds returned to nest – yay Spring!
CHICKENS AND EGGS
Odd how ordinary topics rise to the surface of conversation and news. Eggs, for example. And just in time for Easter. And at the same time, bird flu (avian influenza H591 virus) stalks the chicken population and maybe us.
“Uncertain times” is another topic these days.
But the times – the future – have always been uncertain, and we have always turned to quite imaginative predictors of the nature of what might happen next – tarot cards, the I-Ching, astrology, psychics, religious texts, prophets, and, surprisingly enough, chickens – especially finding clues to the future in chicken entrails.
The Romans employed the talents of keepers of sacred chickens, pullarius, to kill and examine the guts of chickens as omens or auguries of the events to follow. Roman armies were accompanied by a pullarius and a crate of chickens to predict when and where to fight a battle. Practitioners of Voodoo still employ chicken entrails to read the fortunes of their patients.
Eggs are dyed crimson red at Easter in Greece. And then employed in a combat game where one holds an egg and bangs it against the egg held by another person in an attempt to crack the end. The final unbroken egg holder gets good luck for a year. Why? As with all such folk customs among Greeks, there are many reasons. There must be a trick to it, because I never lasted beyond the first egg.
Fact: There are an estimated 7 billion chickens on our planet.
My father explained that the Easter Bunny brought eggs because rabbits lay eggs. I believed him, for a while, when I was very young. When I raised rabbits as a teenager, none laid eggs.
Now I know that rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility.
Paleontologists agree that birds have evolved from dinosaurs. The DNA of chickens is very much like that of T-Rex. Imagine if chickens were as large as dinosaurs.
Scary.
A Slavic character in children’s stories is Baba Yaga – a huge witch hen – who cooks and eats little kids.
The chicken was the first bird species to have its genome sequenced.
And then, there are chicken riddles and chicken jokes, and pet chickens, and cock-fighting chickens, and even chicken worship.
But that’s enough for now – don’t you think?
At least, when I look at my chicken, that’s what comes to mind.