I live near a town with a street that was named “church street”, not because the church was on it, but seven. The town as a whole has at least 17 that I know of.
About half of them have bells, and of those, 5 ring every hour on the hour all day and night, one rings every hour from 8am to 8pm, two or three ring 3x a day (sunrise, noon, sunset) and the others either don’t have bells or don’t use them regularly enough for me to notice.
I can hear the chiming from my back yard, which is several miles away from the city limits.
I don’t know how people put up with it, honestly. It’s nothing to do with my dislike for religion in general, I just hate all that noise, and would not be able to live close to them.
I lived in Oxford for a few years and, if anything, I became rather fond of all the bell ringing. But I can see why someone might have the opposite reaction.
While not inherently religious, they come from a religious building.
Besides, I’d argue that If it were simply about being a clock, they wouldn’t all be going, every single day, competing with each other for the most ridiculous “music” at noon that can last up to 3 minutes.
The jesuit school by my work does ring them at least thrice a day. They are kinda nice though. I agree nobody needs public alarms now we have clocks in our pockets though.
Some churches ring three times a day for daily prayer. Dunno how common that is in the US.
I live near a town with a street that was named “church street”, not because the church was on it, but seven. The town as a whole has at least 17 that I know of.
About half of them have bells, and of those, 5 ring every hour on the hour all day and night, one rings every hour from 8am to 8pm, two or three ring 3x a day (sunrise, noon, sunset) and the others either don’t have bells or don’t use them regularly enough for me to notice.
I can hear the chiming from my back yard, which is several miles away from the city limits.
I don’t know how people put up with it, honestly. It’s nothing to do with my dislike for religion in general, I just hate all that noise, and would not be able to live close to them.
I do think my town is a bit of an anomaly though.
I lived in Oxford for a few years and, if anything, I became rather fond of all the bell ringing. But I can see why someone might have the opposite reaction.
To be fair those are clock bells and not really about religion.
While not inherently religious, they come from a religious building.
Besides, I’d argue that If it were simply about being a clock, they wouldn’t all be going, every single day, competing with each other for the most ridiculous “music” at noon that can last up to 3 minutes.
The jesuit school by my work does ring them at least thrice a day. They are kinda nice though. I agree nobody needs public alarms now we have clocks in our pockets though.
ETA: they ring hourly. I checked today.