ChristStory Bestiary

CHICKENS AND HENS

"I Have Longed to Gather You"

The mother hen's tireless and patient care for her brood makes her symbolic of the protective mother. Her fragile, bouncing chicks bring to mind the play of defenseless toddlers ever careless, ever curious, ever innocently rushing into peril. The Easter Chick represents the frailty of human existence and our dependence on God's watchful care and mercies.

Known to flee the hand that feeds them, the hen and her chicks were an apt illustration of the relationship between the Savior and His people. On His way to Jerusalem to die, Jesus cried out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Mt 23:37; Lk 13:33-35).

The patience of the brooding hen has made her an emblem for grammar. In legends, she may also patiently guard treasures or lay golden eggs. Easter eggs certainly come from her nest. In some places, the Easter Chick delivering her painted Easter eggs is more popular than the Easter Bunny.

The story of Chicken Little who convinces Henny Penny and the rest of the barn yard fowls that "The sky is falling," displays the European and American opinion that the chicken is a foolish bird, prone to fly into a panic over imaginary disasters. Not all people believe the hen is foolish. In some cultures, the women may even ask a hen for spiritual guidance.

All birds are used to represent the soul, but, low-flying birds, such as chickens, signify souls which have an earth-bound or worldly outlook. They are sometimes used in divination ceremonies, thus bringing dead souls down to the earth. The chicken has been used as a sacrificial victim in many cultures. Its value as a sacrifice is increased because it is easy to see that its many offspring - the eggs - which are of an unknown value and quantity are cut off with the death of the parent animal. Its kind of like giving a lottery ticket to the gods; the golden egg may have been sacrificed with the hen without much cost to the worshiper.

In some countries, the Jewish custom of kapparos takes the place of the scapegoat sacrifice which once took place on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16). The day before Yom Kipper, each participant will twirl a chicken (a rooster for a man and a hen for a woman) about their head while asking God to accept its sacrifice as an atonement for their sins. The chicken is then killed and may be given to the poor.

All scripture quotes are from the NKJV Bible.