One thing you will see in every single souvenir shop in Portugal is a rooster. It isn’t just any rooster, either, it is of a very particular and ornate design. The rooster is seen on nearly everything that can hold the image of the rooster (magnets, oven mitts, pins, keychains, shot glasses, show globes), but most prominently the rooster appears as a statuette. They come in all sizes, from tiny to huge. They are usually hand-painted. They are usually cast metal, not ceramic.
You will see this rooster and you will ponder it. It will have no explanation. The rooster exists, in many forms, and you will be unable to forget it. Soon, you will buy many roosters. You don’t know why you are buying this rooster. You just will.
The rooster is the Rooster of Barcelos, subject of a strange Portuguese legend.
The tale has many variations, but the gist is this: some silver got stolen in Barcelos, and the locals were looking for the thief. A traveler, who is passing through town, is arrested for the crime because hey, xenophobia is always an option. The traveler, who would prefer not to be hanged, goes to the town judge and pleads his innocence. The judge, who is about the eat a roast rooster, is doubtful. The traveler declares that if he is innocent, the roast rooster will stand up and crow. And sure enough, the rooster reanimates and crows and then turns the entire town into zombies and then luckily for everyone the zombies are destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
Okay, I embellished that last part.
Anyway, I have at least three of these roosters in my suitcase right now.
