Rooster crowing at night
A rooster crowing at night has often been set off by a light, a noise or a prowling fox, so the sound can prompt you to notice your own false alarms. Irish lore read it as news, sad or happy.
What it may mean
Roosters do not wait for the sun. Experiments in Japan showed that they crow on an internal clock a little before dawn, even when kept in dim light around the clock, and that a passing headlight or a sudden noise can set them off at other hours. So a rooster crowing at 2 a.m. is not confused about the sun. It is answering a signal, real or false. That can make the sound a good occasion to notice your own false alarms: the email you answered at midnight, the worry that fired because today only resembled an old problem. Some of your inner alarms are well timed. Others are just responding to headlights.
Depending on how you saw it
Crowing when a car goes by
Headlights sweeping across a coop can set off a burst of crowing, especially in the hours before dawn. It is a reaction to a light that looks like morning and is not. What in your days looks like a cue to act and is really just passing by?
One rooster answering another
In the country, one rooster's call is often answered by the next farm, and then the next, until the whole valley seems awake. Each bird is only answering the last one. Is there a chain of reactions around you, at work or at home, that started with one small sound?
Calling on and off all night
A rooster that calls again and again through the night may be reacting to a fox or a raccoon near the coop, a bright yard light or another bird nearby. Something keeps it on edge. If your own nights have been restless, you could look for the small light that keeps switching on.
Crowing an hour before dawn
A rooster that calls in the dark hour before dawn is running exactly on schedule. Its body clock knows the night is ending before the sky shows any sign of it. Which of your own instincts has been accurate lately, even when you had no proof yet?
Why it happens in nature
Roosters crow to announce their territory to other birds. Their strongest crowing comes just before dawn and is set by a daily body clock, which is why it happens even on cloudy mornings. Bright lights, loud noises, predators and the calls of other roosters can trigger crowing at any other hour.
What folk beliefs say
Ireland
In Ireland, when a cock crowed at an untimely hour, the woman of the house would hurry to feel its feet. Cold feet foretold a death; warm feet told her it was only celebrating good news, such as a letter from America.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 633. View the page
Persia (Iran)
In Persia, only certain hours were thought proper for a cock to crow: nine in the morning and nine at night, noon and midnight. A cock that crowed at the wrong hour was itself in danger, since it might be killed to turn away ill fortune.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 633. View the page
To reflect on
Which of your alarms went off this week for something that only looked urgent?