When Does Morning Come?

I’m spending the weekend in the countryside with some friends. As I was working on a programming project at about 2:30 in the morning, I heard the roosters starting to sound the coming of morning outside. For a second I though my computer’s clock was set wrong.

In a book on the birth of modern time consciousness in Japan called “The Birth of Tardiness” (I’ll hopefully get around to blogging about 遅刻の誕生 later) it notes that before the coming of modern time to Japan, most farmers and country folk would judge the coming of morning by the rooster’s call. I’m sure this was also the case for many other places around the world. But if the roosters start calling at 2:30 in the morning, long before sunrise, then what is the point? Either the roosters around here are just back from a trip and are a little jet lagged or I must be not understanding the way this is supposed to work…

I just got back from the countryside today and will again have sporadic internet access…

4 thoughts on “When Does Morning Come?”

I know. I always used to hear the birds at 1 in the morning when coming home from nightclubs etc. I’m too geriatric to go out anymore. Sniff.

2:30, AM, I suppose.
Then the rooster’s call is not wrong by our modern way of naming Time. (kidding!)

In the older days, in the country side, Chinese people also judged the coming of morning by the rooster’s call.

They did not have the modern time keeper -clock. So no one would have known if the rooster’s call was too early, just right or late.

Check further, I think people used a combination of factors, i.e. rooster’s call plus morning light, perhaps.

Thank you for your comment Sutaitai, I think you are right, they would have to use a combination of factors, trusting jet lagged roosters is not enough. I received an email from you saying that you weren’t able to post your message, but it looks like it came through.

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