*** Welcome to piglix ***

Funeral toll


The Funeral tolling of a bell is the technique of sounding a single bell very slowly, with a significant gap between strikes. It is used to mark the death of a person either soon after the death, or later, at a funeral or burial service.

The expression "tolling" is derived from the English tradition of "telling" of the death by signalling with a bell. The term tolling may also be used to signify a single bell being rung at a commemoration event many years later, such as on Armistice Day in the UK.

The bell can be struck by a clapper in a swinging bell, or chimed by an internal clapper or external hammer if it is a fixed bell, known as chiming.

Customs vary regarding when and for how long the bell tolls at a funeral. One custom observed in some liturgical churches is to toll the bell once for each year of the decedent's life. Another way to tell the age of the deceased is by tolling the bell in a pattern. For example if the deceased was 75 years old, the bell is tolled seven times for 70, and then after a pause it is tolled five more times for five.

In some parishes in England the centuries-old tradition of announcing a death on a church bell is continued. In a small village most people would be aware of who was ill, and so broadcasting the age and sex of the deceased would identify them. To this end the death was announced by telling or tolling by distinct single strikes the sex of the deceased, and then striking off the years of age. Three blows meant a child, twice three a woman and thrice three a man. After a pause the years were counted out at approximately half-minute intervals. The word teller in some dialects becomes tailor, hence the old saying "Nine tailors maketh a man".


...
Wikipedia

...