Ringing out the Old and Ringing in the New is such a historic bell ringing tradition that the phrase has become used in everyday life, outside of the ringing community. Just imagine if other ringing phrases made their way into everyday parlance…. a train driver might start with a passenger announcement of ‘look to… train’s going’ before pulling out of the station, or a restaurant bill might have ‘that’s all!’ written under the last item …
Ringing on New Year’s Eve is one chance we get to really make a lot of noise in the middle of the night. Bells are often rung half muffled before midnight, then rung down. Whoever has drawn the short straw will get the opportunity to climb into the belfry and de-muffle. Once they are safely back down, the team will raise the bells again and ring joyously to celebrate the New Year. If this becomes a local tradition, why not invite the public into the Church to watch the ringing – some of them may have had a few drinks, but they’ll usually enjoy seeing and hearing the bells rung at midnight.
Some bands like to ‘fire’ their bells. Firing (intentionally) can take practice – it is when all the bells are rung together at the same time – not terribly good for the structure of the tower, so once a year is probably enough if you wish to avoid chunks of falling masonry.
Many teams bring food and drink to the tower on New Year’s Eve and it becomes a bit of a party atmosphere. If you’re a young ringer allowed to stay up late enough to take part, try to persuade your parents to come along to watch the ringing, they might see how much fun it is and decide to take up ringing too! If midnight really is past bedtime for most of the band, why not organise some special ‘New Year’s Day’ ringing during the daytime on January 1st instead? A word of advice though – don’t schedule this for too early in the morning, or you might get a few complaints from neighbours who are feeling a little delicate after partying the evening before.
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