Church bells thundering at 11.20 pm

[Poppywoppydoda]

AIBU to think it’s unreasonable to have church bells thundering at 11.20pm or have I just lost perspective as finally managed to get my DDs to sleep and they’ve now been woken up.

Just to be clear we live across from the church and the bells go every 15 mins all day every day and this doesn’t bother us. This was relentless really loud ringing which went on for 10 mins.

The fact that only one bell was ringing suggests trouble in getting a team to ring the bells.

I used to ring bells as a teen, some 30 years ago. I think I only did the midnight service once, possibly twice (I didn't get on with the others so gave up). I don't ever remember a full team, we have 10 bells in the church and rarely had more than 6 people ringing. It seems quite hard to attract new people into ringing so those others could have been a bit nicer to me all those years ago The oldest bell in our church dates from the 14th century. I'm an atheist but I like the bells.

Evlynismyformerspyname.

Wow. You sound like a bundle of joy and full of Christmas cheer.

So because you had a bad experience it's the same for everyone? Don't think so.

And no one is as suggesting that the OP take her little one to church. Just that that they should accept that living next to a church thy should expect bells. Even at midnight on Christmas Eve.

ohbehave yes they are - undercover just wrote "Children love midnight carol services and it's a shame OP didn't take them over to hear it as it's so close-by."

No of course nothing is the same for everyone. So much so that "everyone" (in the form of most posts on the thread) is piling in on the OP with sarcastic and judgemental comments in the name of Christian tradition. I'm posting my experience precisely because not everyone has a hive mind or the same experience

Some churches are lovely supportive communities. Big cathedral carol services might be joyful and atmospheric.

This thread with all the mean, pursed lipped comments to the sleep deprived mother of small children woken in the middle of the night by very loud ongoing noise reminded me of my childhood of small English village church going. The irony of the myth of Christian kindness. Christian kindness exists, but IMO it is scarce in small C of E parishes, where what matters is how things look, how things have always been done, and judgemental, ritual bound dislike of outsiders is more prevalent.

if you live close to a church you have to assume that bells are ringing.
next year take dc to the christ night service, it's quite special.

Ok so you live near a church

It’s midnight mass you know one of the most important event in the Church diary so yes I think yabu.

Niceandnormal, sounds like you could do with a spell at Church. You know, goodwill to all and that.

YABU

It's the symbolic start to the holy day. If you're not of faith, then I kind of appreciate that it could be inconvenient. However, it's once a year and hopefully you can let it pass as a minor irritation.

I live near a football ground in a major city. It's a bit like me grumbling that I can't park near the house on a Saturday afternoon. But hey, the ground was there long before I moved in. It's just a couple of hours every fortnight

And while I'm on, I'd like to wish every one of you a peaceful Christmas and a very happy new year.

I wish love and happiness to one and all. May all your hopes be met and your dreams come true

Stevie xxx

It drives me bonkers when people move to the country and complain about the mud and the cows mooing, next to a railway line and the noise of the trains, next to a mosque and the call to prayer, near a church and the bells,

... and the ones who buy a house next door to a pub and then try and get it closed down because of the noise from people drinking in the garden in the summer! (This actually happened, and the people who bought a second home near another tried to get their licence revoked).

We had fireworks going off here at midnight, followed by people letting off bangers intermittently until gone 2 am. Which makes all the dogs bark. If it bothered me, I wouldn't have bought a house here.

Yes DPs family are all farmers or labourers. The amount of people who buy a nice house in the country and complain about farming noises and smells is amazing. They think they are moving to some country fantasy, and don't realise that there will be tractors and farm machinery running early in the morning, muck spreading will happen every year and it stinks. There are advantages to living in the countryside, but it is not always a particularly quiet place.

I do understand OP why you were annoyed, but sorry YABU. Hope you are having a great Christmas though.

YABVVVU. The sound of church bells pealing out on Christmas Eve is wonderful.

Getting kids to sleep before Christmas is always tricky, I don’t see what difference bells make. It’s only once a year and is all part of the deal.
We used to wake up DS and take him to Midnight Mass from age 2 onwards, he went back to sleep quite happily afterwards.

Blessed are the newcomers to the village. It's been known for councils to officially ban a church from ringing its bells, on account of one single complaint from a newcomer, or did I read that in the Fail?

It's funny how the tradition of church bells has endured. Bell ringing is quite skilled, can also be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. If church bells were invented now, they would never get through health and safety, or noise pollution laws. (Waits for the "it's all fairy stories" brigade to descend and tell us there shouldn't be churches in this day and age anyway)

wanderings I used to live next to a church where they were highly unskilled at it.

Because I'm an insomniac it used to make me giggle at night when they got the wrong amount of rings or there was a huge pause inbetween them