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Bell-tolling. Beasain (Gipuzkoa). Josetxo Zufiaurre.

In former days bell ringing guided a farmer’s life. Between earliest sunrise and latest sunset, peals of bells signified the time of day and informed about significant events.

The ringing of church bells at the crack of dawn got the members of the household up and running, particularly those who were to go out to the fields or the woods. At midday bells called for the Angelus prayer. It became customary all over Christian Europe to stop any work and pray on hearing the bell. Let us recall the unforgettable realistic picture by J-F. Millet entitled precisely The Angelus. Until quite recently in the Basque Country, even pelota matches were interrupted on courts at 12 noon to say the Angelus. (more…)