Bells have been used since the ancient times to celebrate war victories and to worship the gods for bountiful harvests. The Persians are believed to have used bells to summon the blessings of their goddess Osiris. But the bells then were crude and small, usually attached to parade horses or held by hand.
In the feudal state that followed, villages built larger bells that they put in their watch towers. When the guard sees oncoming harm or attacks in the horizon, he rings the bells to warn the people.
The Bishop Paulinius of Nola, a town of Campania in Italy, is said to have begun the practice of installing bells in the church. Other Christian churches followed suit and began using bells as early as the year 400. Two centuries later, Pope Sabinian sanctioned the use of bells. All church structures would have to have belfries. The purpose is to summon the faithful for the angelus and masses.
Constant reconfigurations throughout the centuries have produced the modern bells that we know now. They sound and look different from their ancestors. Discoveries of several ancient bells from the Celtic abbeys showed that they were forged from bronze and silver sheets. They were also square in shape and must not have been as powerful as the modern bells when producing sound.
In the ninth century, the practice was adapted by the Orthodox churches in Russia. They constructed massive belfries to house gigantic bells. The sounds of these bells were loud enough to be heard miles and miles away. Their cathedrals boast of the largest existing bells in the world today.
Restoring and fine tuning ancient church bells is an industry in itself. Several professional restorers devote their expertise to bringing these bells back to their former glory and to hear them as they have sounded then.
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Source: www.articlesphere.com
