Back in late November or early December the downtown Cathedral began ringing its bells every three hours. At first we thought these bell ringing songs were related to the Christmas season, but no. They are still going on, and are actually becoming a noted moment throughout the day.
About a month ago they had a week or so when the 6 am one was so loud that it was waking us up. A petition went around our area spearheaded by a local dentist and a family with small children, and now it’s possible to actually sleep through them – if the window is closed. But we like to sleep with the window open, so we hear them in the morning. I think we’d miss them if they stopped now.
Below is a video of the 6 am song. Ask anyone in Centro and they’ll hum a few bars for you.
Next comes 3 pm. I took this one from the roof and if you have a good eye you might see two cruise ships in the distance. Could that be “This Land is your Land?”
I couldn’t handle doing any more of these recordings, so you’ll just have to imagine the other ones. I don’t think they play songs for midnight and 3 am, just ring the bells for the hours.
jennifer
February 5, 2009Chuck and I thought they were a Christmas thing too! We have been very confused. Thanks for the info. The 6 am bells used to be enough to wake us up way over here, so I can only imagine the volume they were for you. You won’t have any trouble getting up to walk the dogs when it’s still cool come Summer.
Cynthia
February 6, 2009They play songs! How cool. In San Miguel they ring…..and ring…and ring. Songs would be very nice.
Mindy
February 7, 2009I can imagine that would be charming at first and then annoying and then awful.
Nancy
February 8, 2009We still don’t have any idea if these are a permanent change here or what, but we like them.
And Mindy, they really are fine. If they were louder it probably would bother me but it really is nice.
Instead of counting rings, we hear Ave Maria and know it’s noon. Nice.