A Primer to Swiss Church Bell Ringing Occasions
We are basing this humorous guide on two facts:
1. Every Swiss town has its own church with a bell tower.
2. The bells will obviously ring throughout the hour, but they also seem to ring all the time for less obvious reasons.
Thus, you have bells ringing pretty much - let's just say - a lot. So, for your better appreciation of what we are talking about, here is a rough guide on the various church bell ringing occasions in Switzerland:
Don't know what a Swiss church bell sounds like?
Do you think we exaggerated? No?
(Inspired by Katarina - thanks so much!)
Dimitri Burkhard
Dimitri loves discovering new trends and covers architecture, design, start-ups and tourism.
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exaggerate ? no way, i’d say you left out a few. i happen to live at the foot of a church (no joke), and hellooooooo church bells. every 15 minutes 24/7, but what you didn’t mention above is that at 7am and 7pm, they ring for 15 minutes straight. yes indeed, fifteen minutes. and sometimes the same thing at 11am.
ooh, gotta go, my husband is calling me – but i can’t hear him, it’s 9pm, bells are ringing. ;)
Very funny, Kerrin!!! Thanks for your contribution…
Hello, can someone put an end to a dispute between a friend and me. She maintains that the bell ringing in Schofflisdorf ZH is manual because it sounds out of sync. I maintain that all church bells in Switzerland are electronic/mechanical.Would appreciate any clarification.Thanks Peggy
Hi Dimitri,
may I ask what any possible reasons would be for the bells to be broken? Is it a rare thing to happen?
Thanks
Sara
Broken bells would be extremely rare… But knowing the Swiss, I am sure that they always keep an extra bell nearby!
The church next to us was hit by lightening last summer – they were quiet for two weeks, then we endured church bell hell for several hours during reparation!
Just be silence during the night cause people needs to sleep. Like in all countrys in the world.