Why Is There a Rooster on the Steeple?

Most Christian churches in the southeastern United States, especially in Alabama, where I was raised, have crosses on the steeples of their churches.

During my sabbatical in 2012, prompted by the Celtic crosses on the campus of First Baptist Church of Pensacola, I engaged in a research project on the history of the Celtic cross and the influence of Celtic theology on Baptist faith and practice. As we traveled around the United Kingdom, I took dozens of photos of Celtic crosses at churches and cemeteries.

This week as we travel through the Netherlands, one detail keeps catching my eye—perched atop many church steeples is not a cross or a weathervane shaped like an arrow, but a rooster.

At first glance, it may seem like an unusual choice for such a sacred place. But in the Dutch tradition, the rooster holds deep meaning.

Its roots reach back to the Gospels, where Jesus foretold that Peter would deny him three times “before the cock crows.” The rooster became a symbol of watchfulness, calling the faithful to be alert and steadfast in their faith. By placing a rooster high above the village, the church was sending a visual reminder: stay awake, spiritually and morally.

In the Middle Ages, Pope Nicholas I even decreed that a rooster should be placed on every church to remind believers of Peter’s repentance and Christ’s forgiveness. Over time, the rooster often doubled as a weather vane—turning with the wind, yet always returning to its post as a sentinel over the community.

Here in the Netherlands, where church spires rise above fields, villages, cities, and canals, the rooster still stands guard. These days, according to our guide, the rooster on the steeple usually notes that a church is Protestant.

This humble yet powerful symbol—pointing not just toward the weather, but toward the call to live each day awake and alert to God’s presence in every dimension of life.

And when we fail to do so, maybe the rooster, functioning as a weathervane, can serve as a symbol of grace, reminding us that our sins are put away “as far as the east is from the west.”