Church bell - Citizendia

Cutaway drawing of a church bell, showing construction.

A church bell is a bell which is rung in a (especially Christian) church either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service. A bell is a simple Sound -making device The bell is a Percussion instrument and an Idiophone. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth The hour (symbol h) is a unit of Time. It is not an SI unit but is accepted for use with the SI A wedding is the Ceremony in which two people are united in Marriage. A funeral is a Ceremony marking a person's Death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of Beliefs and practices used by a Culture to remember In the Protestant denominations of Christianity, a service of worship is a meeting whose primary purpose is the Worship of God. Before mass communication they were the only way to gather a village together, so they evolved secular functions also. Secularity ( adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from Religion.

European Christian church bells typically have the form of a cup-shaped cast metal resonator with a flared thickened rim, and a pivoted metal striker or clapper hanging from its center inside. It is usually mounted high in a bell tower on top of the church, so it can be heard by the surrounding community. A Tower which contains one or more bells or which is obviously designed to hold bells (even if it has none is a bell tower. The bell is suspended at its apex from a horizontal axle, so it can swing from side to side. A rope is tied to a pulley or lever on the axle, and hangs down to ground level. To ring the bell, the bell ringer pulls on the rope, swinging the bell. The motion causes the clapper to hit the inside rim of the bell as it swings, making the sound. Alternatively, the bell may be suspended from a stationary support, and the bell rung by pulling a rope attached to the clapper to one side.

Church bell from Saleby, Västergötland, Sweden containing an inscription from 1228 in the Runic alphabet

In the Roman Catholic Church and some High Lutheran and Anglican churches, a small hand bell or set of such bells (called altar bells) is 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. is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative Provinces of Sweden ( landskap in Swedish situated in the southwest of Sweden. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs In the Roman Catholic Church and in some churches of the Anglican Communion, an altar bell is a small bell placed on the credence or in some other convenient Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service usually religious ^[1]

In many Catholic churches, the ringing of a church bell for the Angelus prayer, in the morning, at midday and in the evening, is called the Angelus bell. The Angelus ( Latin for Angel) is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation.

Some church bells are electronically timed to chime automatically. Clocks generally automatically strike, but in the United Kingdom, bells for services, etc. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located , are still almost always rung by people. Some churches use recorded or digitally synthesised bells.

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. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world Divine Service is the term used in the Eastern Orthodox Church to describe the daily cycle of public services celebrated in the Temple (church building A funeral is a Ceremony marking a person's Death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of Beliefs and practices used by a Culture to remember Church bells are rung at Christian Funeral services as they are rung at other services This custom is particularly sophisticated in the Russian Orthodox Church. See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure Russian bells are usually fixed, and are tolled by pulling on a rope that is attached to the clapper so that it will strike the side of the bell.

Church bells became common in Europe in the early Middle Ages. The Early Middle Ages is a period in the History of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 ^[2] They were first common in northern Europe, reflecting Celtic influence, especially that of Irish missionaries. Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world ^[2] Prior to the use of church bells, Greek monasteries would ring a flat metal plate (see semantron) to announce services. The semantron ( Greek: σήμαντρον or semanterion (σημαντήριον also called a xylon (ξύλον ( Romanian: toacă ^[2] The signa and companae used to announce services before Irish influence may have been flat plates like the semantron rather than bells. ^[2]

In World War Two in Great Britain, all church bells were silenced, to ring only to inform of an invasion by enemy troops. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands ^[3] The episode "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" of the BBC sitcom Dad's Army included a scene where the church bells rang by mistake, leading the Home Guard to believe that an invasion was taking place. TV episode The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army, which was originally transmitted on Saturday Dad’s Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard in the Second World War. The British Home Guard (initially "Local Defence Volunteers" or LDV, or in slang Look-Duck-Vanish, hence the name change was a defence

Bell in the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew, Dallas, Texas

Bell in Cologne Cathedral

Ringing the bells at Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, Russia. The Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew is an Episcopal cathedral church located in Dallas, Texas, in the United States. Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom officially de Hohe Domkirche St The Hypatian Monastery (Ипатьевский монастырь in Russian) is a male Monastery, situated on the bank of the Kostroma River just opposite Kostroma (Кострома́ is an historic city in central Russia, the administrative centre of Kostroma Oblast.

The practice and hobby of bell-ringing is known as campanology. Campanology (from late Latin campana, "bell" and Greek grc -λογία -logia) is the study of bells It encompasses Change ringing is a particular facet of campanology where bells are rung in mathematical sequence. Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes" Wedding cards commonly show bells: this is founded on the tradition of ringing changes as the wedding couple leave the church.

References

^ General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 150
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Bells. " Catholic Encyclopedia. read online
^ WW2 People's War - Recollections of a Wartime Childhood