ChristStory Christmas Symbols

BELLS

Joy & Sorrow

The use of large church bells to call the faithful to worship may have been started by Bishop Paulinus of Nola (431 A.D.) in Campania. For many, the sound of church bells ringing out on a Sunday morning bring to mind the commandments to keep the Sabbath holy and to meditate on the words of the Lord (Ex 20:8-11; Josh 1:8; Ps 48:9). Their pitch and rhythm indicate joy, warning, or sorrow so that the community might rejoice with the joyful, and mourn with the sorrowful. They are a symbol of creativity and harmony; the creating Word, and the music of the spheres (Gen 1; John 1:1-4). High in the towers, suspended between heaven and earth, bells and especially their clappers, represent communication and suspension between heaven and earth, or humans and God.

New church bells have been dedicated and even baptized before being used. One legend states that the townspeople of Lochen, Holland neglected to baptize two church bells. So one day, the Devil grabbed these bells and buried them in the bottom of two ponds outside the town. Even today, on Christmas Eve, these bells may be heard ringing at midnight. In other European towns, the ringing of bells from churches that were swallowed up by earthquakes during worship services may be heard by putting one's ear to the ground on Christmas Eve.

Although pagans used bells to summon demons, cast spells, and communicate with the dead, Christians used them to cast out evil spirits and frighten away storms. St. Anthony Abbot attached a bell to his crutch to ward off the demons who plagued him with temptations. Shakespeare alluded to the use of bells in exorcisms and excommunications with the phrase "bell, book, and candle" (King John, III,iii,12).

Bells announce Christ's coming to earth in His birth and in the Eucharist. One medieval misconception was that the Devil died when Christ was born. Therefore, the "Old Lad's Passing Bell" or the "Devil's Knell" was tolled for an hour before midnight every Christmas Eve. Then, exactly at midnight, the bell changed from a funeral toll to a glad Christmas ringing, announcing Christ's birth. Dr. J.M. Neale writes of the Devil's Knell, "Toll, toll, because there ends tonight an empire old and vast..."

In the Old Testament, God instructed the Israelites to put bells on the robe of the High Priest's ephod: "You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all round: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe all around. And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD and when he comes out, that he may not die" (Exo 28:31-35; see also Exo 39:26). According to Matthew Henry, the bells of Aaron's robe "typify the sound of the gospel of Christ in the world, giving notice of His entrance within the veil for us."

Horses, chariots, and sleighs were outfitted with tiny bells to create a merry sound. During the thousand year reign of Christ, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD" (the same words which are written on the high priest's tiara) will be engraved on such bells, indicating that every instrument shall then be pure enough for use in the house of the Lord; the secular shall be sacred (Zec 14:20-21).

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotes are from the NKJV Bible.