Church bell

Oriental Orthodox Christians, such as Copts and Indians, use a breviary such as the Agpeya and Shehimo to pray the canonical hours seven times a day while facing in the eastward direction; church bells are tolled, especially in monasteries, to mark these seven fixed prayer times.[6][7]

In Christianity, some churches ring their church bells from belltowers three times a day, at 9 am, 12 pm and 3 pm to summon the Christian faithful to recite the Lord's Prayer;[8][9][10] the injunction to pray the Lord's prayer thrice daily was given in Didache 8, 2 f.,[11][12][13] which, in turn, was influenced by the Jewish practice of praying thrice daily found in the Old Testament, specifically in Psalm 55:17, which suggests "evening and morning and at noon", and Daniel 6:10, in which the prophet Daniel prays thrice a day.[11][12][14][15] The early Christians thus came to pray the Lord's Prayer at 9 am, 12 pm and 3 pm.[16]

The new bells of Notre Dame de Paris on display in the nave in February 2013 before being hung in the towers of the cathedral.

Many Catholic Christian churches ring their bells thrice a day, at 6 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm to call the faithful to recite the Angelus, a prayer recited in honour of the Incarnation of God.[17][18]

Some Protestant Christian Churches ring church bells during the congregational recitation of the Lord's Prayer, after the sermon, in order to alert those who are unable to be present to "unite themselves in spirit with the congregation".[19][20]

In many historic Christian Churches, church bells are also rung on All Hallows' Eve,[21] as well as during the processions of Candlemas and Palm Sunday;[22] the only time of the Christian Year when church bells are not rung include Maundy Thursday through the Easter Vigil.[23] The Christian tradition of the ringing of church bells from a belltower is analogous to the Islamic tradition of the adhan from a minaret.[24][25]

Most Christian denominations ring church bells to call the faithful to worship, signalling the start of a mass or service of worship.[19][26]

Example of full-circle bells in England in the "up" position.

In the United Kingdom predominantly in the Anglican church, there is a strong tradition of change ringing on full-circle tower bells for about half an hour before a service. This originated from the early 17th century when bell ringers found that swinging a bell through a large arc gave more control over the time between successive strikes of the clapper. This culminated in ringing bells through a full circle, which let ringers easily produce different striking sequences; known as changes.

In Christianity, the ringing of church bells is traditionally believed to drive out demons and other unclean spirits.[2][27][4] Inscriptions on church bells relating to this purpose of church bells, as well as the purpose of serving as a call to prayer and worship, were customary, for example "the sound of this bell vanquishes tempests, repels demons, and summons men".[3] Some churches have several bells with the justification that "the more bells a church had, the more loudly they rang, and the greater the distance over which they could be heard, the less likely it was that evil forces would trouble the parish."[27]

English style full circle bell with clapper half-muffled. A leather muffle is put over one side only of the clapper ball. This gives a loud strike, then a muffled strike alternately.

The ringing of a church bell in the English tradition to announce a death is called a death knell. The pattern of striking depended on the person who had died; for example in the counties of Kent and Surrey in England it was customary to ring three times three strokes for a man and three times two for a woman, with a varying usage for children.[28] The age of the deceased was then rung out. In small settlements this could effectively identify who had just died.[29]

There were three occasions surrounding a death when bells could be rung. There was the "Passing Bell" to warn of impending death, the second the Death Knell to announce the death, and the last was the "Lych Bell", or "Corpse Bell" which was rung at the funeral as the procession approached the church.[29] This latter is known today as the Funeral toll.

A more modern tradition where there are full-circle bells is to use "half-muffles" when sounding one bell as a tolled bell, or all the bells in change-ringing. This means a leather muffle is placed on the clapper of each bell so that there is a loud "open" strike followed by a muffled strike, which has a very sonorous and mournful effect. The tradition in the United Kingdom is that bells are only fully muffled for the death of a sovereign. A slight variant on this rule occurred in 2015 when the bones of Richard III of England were interred in Leicester Cathedral 532 years after his death.[30]

The sacring ring or Gloria wheels used at the St. Jude Thaddeus Church in the former Spanish colony of the Philippines.

The term "Sanctus bell" traditionally referred to a bell suspended in a bell-cot at the apex of the nave roof, over the chancel arch, or hung in the church tower, in medieval churches. This bell was rung at the singing of the Sanctus and again at the elevation of the consecrated elements, to indicate to those not present in the building that the moment of consecration had been reached. The practice and the term remain in common use in many Anglican churches.

Within the body of a church the function of a sanctus bell can also be performed by a small hand bell or set of such bells (called altar bells) rung shortly before the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and again when the consecrated elements are shown to the people.[31] Sacring rings or "Gloria wheels" are commonly used in Catholic churches in Spain and its former colonies for this purpose.[32]

In the Eastern Orthodox Church there is a long and complex history of bell ringing, with particular bells being rung in particular ways to signify different parts of the divine services, Funeral tolls, etc. This custom is particularly sophisticated in the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian bells are usually stationary, and are sounded by pulling on a rope that is attached to the clapper so that it will strike the inside of the bell.

Some churches have a clock chime which uses a turret clock to broadcast the time by striking the hours and sometimes the quarters. A well-known musical striking pattern is the Westminster Quarters. This is only done when the bells are stationary, and the clock mechanism actuates hammers striking on the outside of the sound-bows of the bells. In the cases of bells which are normally swung for other ringing, there is a manual lock-out mechanism which prevents the hammers from operating whilst the bells are being rung.

In World War II in Great Britain, all church bells were silenced, to ring only to inform of an invasion by enemy troops.[33] However this ban was lifted temporarily in 1942 and permanently in 1943 by order of Winston Churchill.

In the Netherlands, there have been many controversies and even lawsuits in 20th and early 21st century about church bell noise pollution experienced by nearby residents.[41] As of 2019, national legislation states that the sound of a church bell may not exceed 70 decibel between 7 am and 7 pm, no more than 65 decibel between 7 pm and 11 pm, and no more than 60 decibel between 11 pm and 7 am.[41]

The complaints are usually, but not always, raised by new local residents (or tourists who spend the night in the neighbourhood[42]) who are not used to the noise, especially at night and therefore cannot sleep (or sleep in on Sundays),[43][44][45] or during the day cannot hear the television, radio, telephone or understand each other in conversation.[42][44] Local residents who had been used to it for longer usually retort that the newcomers 'should have known this before they moved here' and that the ringing bells 'belong to the local tradition', which sometimes goes back more than a hundred years.[43][44][45][46][47] However, in some cases the local bell-playing tradition is not that old yet, or has allegedly recently increased in frequency or volume,[46][47][48] and it's also possible for residents who have already been living in the neighbourhood for decades to be or become bothered by it and start complaining.[44][45][48][49]

Some critics even wonder which function the church bells still serve in modern times[42][50] and why the right of churches to sound their bells so often prevails over the interests of people near it who do not need them to tell the time, do not go to that church (let alone adhere to the religion of that church), do not attend all the special ecclesiastical events such as weddings, funerals or award ceremonies of that church, and are not always pleased with the musical pieces coming from the steeples, but do experience noise pollution from it.[45][49][51] Medieval supplementary functions of church bells, such as warning for fires or other disasters, closing the city gates or collecting the tax have long fallen into disuse, and since the rise of watches in the 20th century and smartphones in the early 21st century their time-indicating function has also been largely rendered obsolete.[50]

• From the 1950s until 2011, a conflict lasting more than 50 years concerning the carillon of the St. Laurens Church in Weesp, which sounded throughout the night. The municipality invoked a 300-year-long tradition and the fact that most other inhabitants never complained, but the Court of Amsterdam ruled in favour of the complainants that the nocturnal bell-ringing was harmful to public health. When it turned out that it was impossible to diminish the sound, the city council decided on 23 June 2011 that the carillon would remain silent between 11 pm and 7 am.[52][53][54]
• In April and May 2005, resident J. Benedict brought his case to the Council of State against the college van burgemeester en wethouders of Amersfoort regarding the playing times and the volume of the Onze Lieve Vrouwetoren's church bells. A few years early, locals took their case to the National Ombudsman, which determined that the bell-playing fell within the jurisdiction of the Environmental Management Act (Wet milieubeheer) and thus required an environmental permit (milieuvergunning). The Council partially upheld the appeal: henceforth, there could be no bell-playing at night between 21:45 and 09:00, but the frequency by day complied to standards, and although the volume exceeded noise norms, it could not reasonably be reduced without sound distortion; therefore the chimes were maintained during the day because of their 'special historical and cultural significance'.[55][56]
• In December 2005, the college van burgemeester en wethouders of Nijmegen held a hearing with protesting local residents, and then decided the carillon of Saint Stephen's Church could henceforth only be sounded once per hour instead of every 15 minutes; the church had to obey its environmental permit that restricted the amount of noise it was allowed to produce.[47] Two locals and the Stephen's Church Foundation appealed, but the Council of State rejected their appeal in June 2006.[57]
• From 2006 until 2011, a legal battle raged between pastor Harm Schilder from the Margaret Mary Alacoque church in Tilburg, and nearby residents united in the action committee De Wakkere Luiden, who managed to get the municipality on their side. The Court of Breda eventually prohibited Schilder from sounding his chimes before 7:30 am, and forced him to keep the noise below 80 decibel.[58]
• 2017 saw several months of debate about the nocturnal bell-playing of the Dom Tower of Utrecht, which deprived several locals of sleep, and furthermore appeared to be illegal according to the municipality's own act to restrict noise from music at night. However, the college van burgemeester en wethouders claimed it was an 'error' and proposed to change the act to explicitly exclude the Dom Tower from it, supported by a large majority in the city council.[59]
• In Woerden, St. Bonaventura's Church's bells used to ring every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at a volume of 70 decibel, until a nearby resident complained that it kept him awake at night; the municipality then determined the church couldn't sound them after 11 pm, beginning in September 2019.[41]
• In September 2019 a resident, allegedly an expat, complained about the nocturnal bell-ringing of the Westertoren in Amsterdam in a letter to the college van burgemeester en wethouders; he suggested a 'break' between 0:00 and 6:00 so that people could sleep at night. The vast majority of other local residents was cross with the complainant, saying that he should go and live somewhere else, and that the sounds of the Westertoren carillon was part of the neighbourhood and their lives. A small group sympathised with the complaint, however. Over ten years earlier, other newcomers had also complained about the nightly noise, leading to the volume being toned down at night.[60]