# Telling time by church bells



## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

This has to be one of the weirdest questions I've asked here.

What determines how frequently a church's bells ring to mark the time?

I'm not talking about bells ringing for specific events or services or any religious part of it, just the_ time _part.

I've seen churches that ring a bell once on every quarter hour, twice on the half, three on the three-quarter, and then four times on the full hour, followed by the number of rings of the actual hour in a different bell tone.

Then there are ones that do the full hours and only one ring on the half.

And ones that only do full hours. Some just count the number, some add a minute or so of musical bell-ringing.

And then there are ones that don't ring for time at all, just for morning and mid-day and evening services.

Who decides this? Does this depend on the denomination? The size of the community? The personal preference of the pastor? Is there any kind of rule for this?


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

You missed the ones that play a whole tune on the hour, and half the tune at the half hour.
Ding dong dong ding
Hear the bells ring
(oh man I cannot remember the words for this line... it will probably come to me about 2 am.)
Strike to the hour

(And then the dongs for counting the hours..)


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Oh, I'm sure there are many more variations.  I was just trying to explain what I meant by all the different ways they do it.  When you add tunes and parts of tunes to the mix, there are LOTS of possibilities...


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Many Catholic Churches ring the bells at 6 a.m. noon and 6 p.m.  Some places they don't ring at 6 a.m. if it's deemed too early for the community.  It's meant to be a signal to the faithful to take a few minutes and say a specific prayer.

On Sundays, they tend to ring the bells at whatever times the Masses are supposed to start. . .sort of a "Call to Worship"

These are just straight tollings. . . .no tunes.  And the number of peals has nothing to do with the time. . .

Oh. . .and there aren't rules about the above. . .it's up to what the pastor wants to do unless there is some higher up directive in place.  They all do it in Boston, for sure though:  one time on "Dirty Jobs", Mike Rowe was working with some Bell tuner/technicians and they were up in the tower of one of the churches there.  They'd been talking and suddenly the guy says "oh Shit!" .  .well, "oh Bleep" on the show. . .and he told everyone to hunker down and plug their ears.  They'd lost track of the time and when he heard a neighboring church's Angelus start to ring at noon he knew the tower they were in would go as well. . . .many of the bells are on timing systems.

On Holy Thursday during the singing of the Gloria at the Mass, the bells are usually rung for a good 5 minutes. . .just random pealing:  if there's more than one bell, they're all set tolling.  That's the last time they will be rung AT ALL until Holy Saturday at the Gloria of the Easter Vigil when they are again rung for a good 5 minutes.

At Westminster, they ring 1/4 of the tune on the quarter hours, ring the whole tune on the hours, and then Big Ben (an Eb note) tolls the hours.  I was there once when it rang at noon. . . . .it is very loud. . .they give you ear plugs. . . .and you're not allowed to say anything because it goes out over the BBC to tell the world what time it is in London.

On board ship, they ring the ships' bell every half an hour -- once, then twice, three times, etc. until they get up to 8 bells.  That's about 4 hours.  It's so one can tell how long into the watch they are -- a watch being, generally, 4 hours.  So if it's 7 bells, it might be 7:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. . . . .etc. . . . presumably you know which based on external observations and when you came on duty.


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## caracara (May 23, 2010)

Ours "ring" (I'm pretty sure they're not actual bells, but speakers in ours) every hour, the number of times indicating the hour. On Sunday they also go off for all the masses.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I don't recall ever living anywhere near a church that used its bells to mark the time, at least not on an hourly basis. The only ones I remember doing that were clock towers in civic or academic facilities. I suspect those that still do it are a holdover from the days when they were the only reasonably accurate time-keepers, and even later when only the upper class were likely to have personal timepieces. Nowadays it would seem to be a pretty redundant practice (and annoying if you live near it).


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Who decides this?


Quasimoto.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Jeff said:


> Quasimoto.


Good answer!!!


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Okay....  so what I'm gathering here is that nobody knows....


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Except it's "Quasimodo". (Sorry Jeff  )

And he was so named because he was found on Quasimodo Sunday which is the Sunday after Easter. In the Latin Mass of the day, the first words are _"Quasi modo geniti infantes. . . ."_ which mean something on the order of "As new born infants. . . ." Thus: Quasimodo -- a new born infant found at the church on that day.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Except it's "Quasimodo". (Sorry Jeff  )


Huh. I thought it was Quasi-Moto because he dragged one leg. I should have looked it up.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Susan in VA said:


> Okay.... so what I'm gathering here is that nobody knows....


I'm not sure if I know for sure but I grew up a block from a large Catholic church. I loved lying in bed and listening to the bells. If I am remembering correctly it would chime four times at the quarter hour, then one bong at the half, twelve chimes at 3/4 of the hour, at the top of the hour the bongs equaled the hour. I remember this because if I heard one bong I'd wait until the next fifteen minute chime to see if it was 1 am or on the half. If it were 1 am I'd hear four chimes at the quarter hour. If it were the half I'd hear twelve.

I could be saying this wrong becuase we also had a bonging clock in our house that did a different pattern. Dueling bongs.

Jenna


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## CNDudley (May 14, 2010)

And since this is KB, my favorite church bells mystery: Dorothy Sayers' _Nine Tailors_

Sadly not on Kindle, but her mysteries should be read in order anyhow, especially once Harriet Vane comes on the scene.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> And he was so named because he was found on Quasimodo Sunday which is the Sunday after Easter. In the Latin Mass of the day, the first words are _"Quasi modo geniti infantes. . . ."_ which mean something on the order of "As new born infants. . . ." Thus: Quasimodo -- a new born infant found at the church on that day.


Cool. I didn't know that.

Jeff's etymology is good too, though.


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