Do you hear the bells ringing?
JOBURG – Here are some facts about why bells have come to be associated with Christmas.
According to WhyChristmas.Com, bells, especially church bells, have traditionally been associated with Christmas.
In the Anglican and Catholic churches, the church day starts at sunset, so any service after that is the first service of the day. A service on Christmas Eve after sunset is traditionally the first service of Christmas Day. In churches that have a bell or bells, they are often rung to signal the start of this service.
The site said in the Catholic church, Christmas and Easter are the only times that Mass is allowed to be held at midnight. It’s traditional that at both midnight Masses, the church, and altar bells too in many cases, are rung while the priest will say the ‘Gloria’.
It is said that having Mass at midnight at Christmas dates back to the early church, when it was believed that Jesus was born at midnight, although there has never been any proof of this. A lot of churches have midnight services on Christmas Eve, although not every church will have a mass or communion as part of the service.
The site also shared that perhaps the most famous bells at Christmas now are the ones in the song Jingle Bells. However, the song was first called One Horse Open Sleigh and was originally published in the USA in September 1857 as a Thanksgiving song and not a Christmas one.
It soon did became associated with Christmas because of the ‘snowy’ lyrics and many choirs were singing it at Christmas in the 1860s and 1870s. It was first recorded in 1889. Often only the first verse (and chorus) are now sung. The other verses are said to be about driving the ‘one horse open sleigh’ rather fast and crashing it.
