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| Christmas Carnivals » Christmas Bells |
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Christmas Bells |
As the holiday season nears, decking the halls kicks into high gear – trees, lights, and ornaments seem to adorn almost every surface in the house. For many, the sight of Christmas bells is a second thought. Since ringing them on December 25th has become less prevalent as cities have grown, they have become a decoration, not unlike a glass ball or bough of holly. Many of our favorite Christmas songs feature references to sleigh bells, which seem more appropriate considering all of Santa’s reindeer, but what about all those silver bells telling us it’s Christmastime in the city?
Like many of our modern traditions, the presence of bells has pagan origins. Winters in northern Europe are often grey and dark, as the colder air allows clouds to hang in thick masses throughout the short days. Fewer daylight hours, to a pagan, would have meant more time for evil spirits to roam the land of the living at night causing mischief or doing harm. The noise of the bells, it was believed, would cause such an massive unpleasant sound no demon would come near. This became especially important in the days after the harvest or a major hunt, as scarce Winter resources had to be protected in order to last until the warmer Spring days.
As Christianity spread throughout the continent over the centuries, many of these ideas were baptized in the name of Jesus. Pagan converts could more easily connect the idea of abolishing wickedness with Jesus’ role as Savior by attaching the custom of bell ringing to his birth. In effect, his humble arrival in the stable of Bethlehem banished those evil spirits forever for those who believe in him, so it was a logical step to help individuals make a smooth transition into the Christian faith by retaining a form of understood symbolism. When churches developed to the point of having belfries, the ringing could be spread across a larger area as a means of marking the celebration for an entire village or town.
Eventually, smaller bells became an inexpensive instrument to bring along as you went caroling – and even turned out to be the subject itself! Everything from poetry to song paid tribute to the familiar jingling, allowing people all over the world a fond memory attached to the holiday.
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