Big straw hen hoped to herald end of anti-pandemic fight

January 28, 2022

Big straw hen hoped to herald end of anti-pandemic fight 

The huge object appeared at a park in Chikuzen Town, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, early in December, amid local people's hope that the covid-19 pandemic will subside soon so that the affected people's griefs will come to an end around the world.

The 8-meter-high straw hen is a product by young volunteers who have gathered for a project to build a monument for each year to cheer up the largely rural community.

Chikuzen Town is known as a hub of egg farms in the region. This is why the hen has been selected as the theme for the straw monument project this time. 

The objects built so far since 2015 include a wild boar and a gorilla. 

The straw hen has a total length of 6 meters and weighs about 3 tons.  Lying beneath its body is an egg from which a chick has just appeared. 

The project has been organized by a local youth group, and the straw hen is a product of two months of work by about 150 volunteers, with bunches of straws collected from the rice fields around after the harvest.

The hen is known as a bird which heralds the dawn in Japan. In order for a chick to be born, the mother bird and the chick work together by picking at the eggshell from the outside and from the inside of the shell simultaneously, organizers say in a message on the board put near the object. 

"This can be interpreted to mean that we must close our ranks to overcome the covid-19 pandemic." 

The straw monument project is supported by crowd funding from across the country.  

The big hen will be displayed until the end of January, and spectators could see its night view lit up on some days from late December to early January.  

Visitors are asked to see the object while wearing a face mask and keeping a social distance from each other.

The series of new daily customs for living with the new coronavirus has come to stay among Japanese people. 

At a time when many people in Japan are getting exhausted with continuing the new practices in their daily life, the big hen is hoped to help boost their spirits and bring their normal days back to them soon.