My favorite holiday tradition is basking in the hypnotic tones of a bell choir. I find them comforting. As I listen, I feel as though I’m being connected to the past, to a time when people roasted chestnuts on an open fire and went a-wassailing. They remind me that time passes, people live, grow old, and die, and that’s as it should be. And that reminder makes my troubles seem insignificant.
My being a handbell-ophile may seem hypocritical if you’ve read my recent blog post regarding my overall disdain for having Christmas music forced down one’s throat at this time of year. But in this case, the operative word in that sentence is “forced”. As in being hit with this music every time you go through a set of automatic doors from Thanksgiving to the day in question. On the other hand, I seek bell choirs out.
While doing research for this post, I learned some interesting things about bell choirs via Wikipedia, that veritable font of all human knowledge. It seems that handbells may have been around as early as 1696. No one is sure why, but that’s when bell casters started fine tuning bells to produce specific notes. (My guess would be that the did it at that point because they had finally figured out how to.) I was surprised to learn that handbells didn’t make it to America until 1902.
These bells came in handy for church bell ringers, because they of course wanted to practice the tunes they intended to ring out from their belfries for people far and wide. If they used the tower bells for such practice, the neighbors would complain. It was much more sensible to practice on miniature versions of those huge church bells, and they could do so in private, or in local pubs while enjoying a pint or two. Win/win.
For some reason, bell choirs are mainly associated with the Christmas season, so at the beginning of December, I Googled bell choirs in my city and found a group called Bells of the Sound. (Bonus points for such a creative name, as we are a stone’s throw away from Puget Sound.) Dear Husband and I got to attend one of their performances, and it was a pure delight.
Afterwards, we talked to the ringers. I asked how one begins being a ringer, and I was told that most of them had been ringing since childhood and were introduced to the art in either church or school. That was a bit of a disappointment, because I always thought it would be fun to be a ringer.
I kind of wish my church would start up a bell choir, but those bells are extremely expensive. On this website, a single bell is going for about $500, and a whole set is $4,200. And those are only the small ones! According to this website, the really large ones can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $6,400 each. Yikes.
I was able to lift the Bells of the Sound’s heaviest bell, and I think it was about 15 pounds. That’s got to be hard on the wrists. The very largest bells were made of aluminum, so not nearly as heavy. I was allowed to ring a few, and it was really gratifying. I could feel the sonic vibrations in my bones.
Here are a few photos and videos from the event, one of which includes an amusing visit from a Sumo Sugarplum Fairy. Enjoy the sounds of the season, and happy holidays, Dear Reader. I would love to hear about your favorite holiday traditions in the comments below, and I look forward to reading your comments in the coming year as well.
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