|
 A
striking component of Orthodox worship is the ringing of bells. Every
daily cycle of public divine services starts with the ringing of bells
and no one who has witnessed the procession around the church at Holy
Pascha can forget the almost continuous ringing of all the church bells.
In Pre-Revolutionary Moscow, for example, travelers invariably commented
on the stirring clamor of the more than 1600 bells of the city ringing
simultaneously at the Pascha of Our Lord. Usually a separate structure,
the Bell Tower, was constructed to contain the bells, but more often in
modern times a belfry is erected over the entrance to the church building,
within which the bells are placed.
The purpose of ringing the bells is to call the faithful to services,
to inform those absent from divine services of the various important liturgical
moments of the services, as well as calling the worshippers to concentrated
attention at these same moments. It is also used to signal the arrival
of the Archpastor at the church or monastery. There are four basic types
of bell-ringing in the Russian Church: The Announcement (Blaguvest' -
announcing); the Peal (Trezvon - three bells); Chain-ringing (Perezvon
- across (or linked) bells); and the Toll (Perebor - broken (or interrupted). |
