Bells, bells, bells, bells
Did Poe live in Switzerland?
Last fall, Gabe wrote a Washington Post article about soundproofing your home, inspired partly by our apartment’s location in the flight path of planes taking off from the Basel-Mulhouse airport and partly by the church bells ringing every 15 minutes. We have yet to implement any soundproofing methods. The plane noise is a nuisance between 6:30 in the morning til 10:30 at night. We tolerate it. The bells, you get used to… maybe.
From our apartment, we hear three churches’ bells. The two closest to us are the Catholic church and the Old Catholic church, both called St. Peter & Paul, though the Old Catholic church also goes simply by “Allschwil church.” It has six Google reviews; two of them complain about the bell ringing.
This is the schedule: it’s one ding-dong at 15 past; two at 30; three at 45, and then on the hour, it’s four ding-dongs followed by a chime for the hour. So at noon and midnight, bells ring 16 times. Until the switch to Sommerzeit (summer time, or Daylight Saving Time), one of the churches was four minutes fast, staggering the ringing even more.
In addition to the quarterly-hour ringing, the bells ring to call parishioners to services. Weekday mornings, the bells ring from 7:01 until 7:04. They ring for a few minutes at 6:00 p.m. They ring for nine minutes on Saturday at 4:00 p.m, welcoming Sunday. And on Sunday mornings, they go at 10, 10:30, maybe again at 11 – I lose track. If there’s a wedding, funeral, or a holiday like Easter or Swiss National Day, there is extensive ringing. The daily ringing is tied to past church service and prayer times, but none of the Allschwil churches have daily weekday services at 7 a.m. Some of this bell ringing seems excessive, especially in a country where 34% of the population claims no religious affiliation. At this point, it’s just tradition.
Though I am one of the 34%, I like the church bells. Before we moved here, hearing a church bell in the U.S. reminded me of Swiss summers. Now they help me know what time it is as I toss and turn at 2 a.m., trying not to look at my phone. They tell me how long I’ve snoozed in the morning, and how late I am leaving for work (they obviously do not help me become a more punctual Swiss). We live far enough away from the churches so it’s not too loud. If you lived next door, I can imagine it would be disruptive. Many people hate the frequent ringing, and there have been attempts across the country to get churches to stop ringing their bells through the night. A court ruled in favor of a couple near Zurich twice, but then the Swiss Federal Court overruled the local one. It’s a constant battle between Swiss tradition and people who want to sleep. A Baselland pastor in this 2014 article said the conflict had been around since his childhood and called it “an alten Zopf” (an old bread, but specifically Zopf, the challah-like Swiss bread). In Allschwil, all but the Old Catholic Church have adopted Bell Quiet Hours.
If you’re a light sleeper visiting Switzerland, consider traveling with earplugs. Maybe a white-noise machine.
Church bells aren’t the only ones enraging people. In the country, the church bells will almost certainly be accompanied by cow bells. That sound is my Nostalgia Kryptonite, and it takes me immediately back to summers hiking through alpine meadows below snow-capped peaks. But again, bells are not beloved by all.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the woman who complained about both the cow and church bells in her village. There’s a Radiolab episode about her. She didn’t just complain; she tried to get them banned. When it was time for her town to vote on her citizenship, they denied her. Twice. Because she was too annoying. Eventually, the cantonal government overrode her town and and granted her citizenship.
To ward off potential complaints, the town of Aarwangen in canton Bern recently voted to recognize cow bells as part of their cultural heritage. Like the church bells, cow bells ringing day and night are tradition.
I understand how preserving church and cow bells as cultural heritage feels like building a wall against outside attacks on a way of life. These complaints seem to always come from an “outsider” – someone new to the village or the country. The Radiolab episode specifically mentions tech employees who moved from the city. It also gets into the high number of rejected citizenship applications of Muslims from former Yugoslavian countries and past campaigns by the “farmers’ party,” the SVP, whose favorite subject is immigration, or fighting against it.
I don’t want bells silenced, and I think it’s galling to move somewhere and start making demands. I’m really opposed to the Swiss practice of letting pet cats roam free to murder birds and poop in neighbors’ gardens, but I’m not going to introduce an Indoor Cats Initiative (probably). I support compromise, and I wouldn’t vote against an overnight bell ringing pause. After all, we observe quiet hours and don’t vacuum after 7 or 8 p.m. or do laundry on Sundays, so the church bells ding-donging all dang night feels a little contradictory.
What local traditions from where you live would you preserve as cultural heritage, if you could?
Today’s subject line was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Bells. It really captures the range of emotions Swiss bells stir up in people — merriment, happiness, despair, melancholy as they drive the haters mad.
Sources
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/church-bells-charm-and-annoy-their-listeners/40807288
https://www.srf.ch/audio/mailbox/warum-laeuten-die-glocken-zu-bestimmten-zeiten?id=10228705
Ms. Golden -
Googled Poe's Bells; interesting poem. Was also led to a photo gallery of Mr. Poe. Either there are only two, maybe three, original photos of him - all dour - or he never met a frown he didn't like.
I've always liked cowbells whether rung by cows or others.
Thank you for another slice of Swiss.
so many funny lines. I love love love church and distant cowbell sounds .. and I noticed when back in DC at G'town how - lame - the college bell seemed vs. Cambridge - which I seem to recall had a few daily bells? Or at least I heard them. Anyway - the cowbell-in-the-pasture-on-the-mountain is somehow a calming sound to me... but sleeping thru a million calls to prayer, Catholic-style, would drive me nuts. Good luck!