Death knell

The Knell (or death bell , Bavarian, Austrian also trains bell or Zügenglöcklein ) is a bell , which in many Lutheran churches and Catholic parishes after the occurrence of the death of a community member is rung ( ring out ). The bell is usually rung on the day following the day of death after the news of death was displayed in the parish office . According to the chime , this bell is rung at a fixed time of the day (usually at noon or in the evening) or during the so-called divorce prayer in the next service .

In the Protestant tradition, a larger bell is usually used as the death bell, whereas in Catholic parishes the smallest bell often indicates that someone has died. There are also regional differences within the denominations. The following custom can be found in Switzerland , for example : In churches with several bells, the second smallest is usually the death bell, while the smallest is the baptismal bell . The death knell is then rung for adults and the christening bell for a child who died before first communion .

Web links

Commons : Death Bells  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Wiktionary: death knell  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Train bell, the. In: duden.de. Retrieved July 18, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Train bells, the. In: duden.de. Accessed July 31, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Swiss Society for Folklore (Ed.): Swiss Folklore. Volume 82, Verlag G. Krebs, 1992, p. 72 f.
4. ↑ So already in 17th century England, cf. Tanja Tepelmann: Death and burial customs in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Innsbruck 2002, p. 89.