{{Short description|Funeral custom}} [[File:Cemeterybelltower4.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Photograph of cemetery bell tower.|Bell tower at Forest Home Cemetery in Fifield, Wisconsin. The bell is tolled during funerals.]] [[File:Half muffled bell.jpg|thumb|English-style full circle bell with clapper half-muffled. A leather muffle is put over one side only of the clapper ball. This gives a loud strike, then a muffled strike alternately. The bell is shown inverted in the "rest position". Half-muffles are usually used for funerals and occasions of remembrance or mourning, as seen at the Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.]] 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 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 slowly, and possibly half-muffled at a commemoration event many years later.
Tolling is typically used for tenor bells in change ringing. It also applies to bourdon bells in a bell tower or cathedral.
==Origins== Historically, a bell would be rung on three occasions around the time of a death. The first was the "passing bell" to warn of impending death, followed by the death knell which was the ringing of a bell immediately after the death, and the last was the "lych bell", or "corpse bell" which was rung at the funeral as the procession approached the church.<ref>Walters P 154–160</ref> This latter is closest to what is known today as the ''Funeral toll''.
Today, customs vary regarding when and for how long the bell tolls at a funeral.
In churches with full-circle English bells, for commemorative services such as funerals, memorial services and Remembrance Sunday, the bells are rung ''half-muffled'' instead with a leather pad on one side of the clapper in call changes or method ringing. Very rarely are they rung ''fully-muffled'' with pads both sides. This can often be a quarter peal or peal – the latter lasting three hours.
Big Ben, the bell in the Elizabeth Tower in London, has, since 1910, been tolled at the funeral of a British sovereign, the number of strokes equalling the number of years of the sovereign's life.
==See also== * Dead bell * Death knell * Ring of bells * ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' by Ernest Hemingway (quoting John Donne) * ''The Nine Tailors'' by Dorothy L Sayers ==Video== * Video of English church bells being rung half-muffled, and then the tenor bell being tolled for a WW1 Roll of Honour in 2016 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KYWtFeQzyw]
==References== {{reflist}} * Stahlschmidt J.C.L: ''The Church Bells of Kent: Their inscriptions, founders, uses and traditions'', p. 126. Elliot Stock, 1887.{{ISBN?}} * H B Walters, ''The Church Bells of England''. Published 1912 and republished 1977 by Oxford University Press.{{ISBN?}} * [https://archive.org/stream/churchbellsofken00stah/churchbellsofken00stah_djvu.txt The Church Bells of Kent] * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/fcod/fcod08.htm Bells and Mourning] * [https://orderofserviceforfuneral.co.uk/ Funeral Order Of Service Painting]
Category:Campanology Category:Funerals