Why the Rooster Calls the Sun

Long, long ago, in the very early days of the world, the sun took fright and ran away to hide. Something had startled her, and she tucked herself down behind a great hill at the edge of the sky and would not come out.

And so the whole world went dark. The days were as black as the nights. The crops drooped and would not grow, and the animals stumbled about, cold and frightened, bumping into one another in the dark.

The animals knew they could not live like this. So they called a great meeting, every creature together, and they agreed that someone must go and coax the sun back into the sky.

The lion went first, for he was the king. He marched up to the hill and ROARED, a roar so loud it rattled the very stones. “Come out, Sun! Your king commands it!” But the sun only shrank back further. Who would ever want to come out for all that shouting?

Then the elephant tried, trumpeting as grandly as he could. Then the peacock spread his glorious shimmering tail and danced and danced, certain the sun could not resist him. But the sun stayed hidden behind her hill. The loud, the grand, and the splendid had all failed.

At last a small voice piped up. It was the rooster, a plain little bird nobody had even thought to ask. “Please,” he said, “may I try?” The big animals very nearly laughed. But they let him go.

The rooster did not roar, and he did not show off. He simply lifted his head, and in his clear, bright voice he sang out, sweet and hopeful, “Wake up, Sun! Oh, we have missed you so. Please, won’t you come and warm the world again?”

And something about that small, kind, hopeful call was the very thing the sun had been waiting for. Slowly, shyly, she peeped out from behind her hill. The sky turned grey, then pink, then gold, and warm light came spilling back across the whole grateful world.

And that is why, even now, every single morning before the sun comes up, the rooster lifts his head and calls out in his clear, bright voice. He is doing what he has always done. He is gently calling the sun back to us. And every morning, without fail, she answers.