Thursday Thirteen No. 13: Bells

I heard a girls' choir sing the "Carol of Bells" last week at a Christmas concert. On the way home, I heard "Silver Bells." Out for a walk, I heard sleigh bells shaken by a golden retriever who wore them on her collar. All the bells were magic. Bells, bells, bells. What about bells? They've been around for a long time:

1. Bells have been used by different civilizations in religious rites even before the development of a written language. The first bells were cast in China 4,000 years ago, and

2. The first Christian churches to have bells were in Italy around 500 AD, where the Benedictine monks in the Campana region learned how to cast them.

3. They are mentioned in Exodus as part of Hebrew worship, and ancient artwork shows them decorating the robes of priests.

4. Handbells were the first bells to have appeared in England, the Romans using them to summon their servants.

5. The ringing of bells became the means of telling time. Priests rang the bells before worship.

6. Servers at masses of the Roman Catholic Church and among some High Lutheran and Anglican churches ring small hand-held bells when the priest raises the host and the chalice to indicate that the bread and wine have just been transformed into the body and blood of Christ, or, in the alternative Reformation teaching, that Christ is now bodily present in the elements and that what the priest is holding up for them to look at is Christ himself.

7. In medieval times bells were steeped in superstition. They were baptized, and once baptized bells had the power to ward off evil spells and spirits. (more)