Press Room

New Year’s Day 2023 marked the exact 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863. The document declared “that all persons held as slaves” within rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” With that momentous stroke of the pen, more than 3.5 million enslaved people in the secessionist Confederate states gained their freedom.
 

The last reverberations from the final toll of the 2023 National Bell Festival have rippled across the skies. Spanning five continents, the fourth annual festival was a resounding success while ringing people together in the joy of the New Year. 

It all began in Australia. At midnight local time on New Year’s Eve (that’s a very early 8:00am for us in Washington, D.C.), the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon erupted into sound. Following the strokes of midnight, Carillonneur Wendy Murphy played a stirring arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne” on the 47 tower bells.

It’s New Year’s Day! Which means bell ringing is in full swing for the National Bell Festival. Across five continents and thousands of bells, we’re ringing in the New Year like never before.

The grand bells at the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peter’s Basilica, were notably quiet Saturday morning. While a single bell could be heard tolling in St. Peter’s Square, a Vatican spokesman was quick to clarify the bell was not ringing for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose death at 95 had just been announced.

Get ready, world. The annual global celebration of bells and bell ringing kicks off tomorrow! People across five continents are set to ring in the New Year with us, beginning at midnight tonight for our Ring around the World. When the clock strikes 12 o’clock, carillonists in bell towers from Australia to Asia, Africa to Europe, and then here in the Americas will play the beloved tune of “Auld Lang Syne” on bells. 

Dame Karen Pierce DCMG represents His Majesty The King and the UK government as Ambassador to the USA.
 
“Bells have long brought communities together. My job as His Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States is to celebrate and expand the deep bonds that bring our nations together.
 

It seems no one is untouched by the still-lingering effects of global supply chain disruptions and the viral pandemic. Campanologists, alas, are no exception. Production challenges beyond our control have compelled us to push back the unveiling of our much-anticipated ‘Truth Will Prevail’ bell – our gift to the Office of Tibet, who represents His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration to North America.

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers has announced an initiative called Ring for the King to recruit and train bell ringers in time for the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III on May 6, 2023. For centuries, bell ringers have rung in good times and bad, in moments of celebration and at times of mourning. The coronation of a new monarch is certainly an occasion to commemorate.

A recent article printed in The Economist tells of the movement of bronze bells during World War II and ongoing efforts to correct 80-year-old wrongs through bell diplomacy. There is much to applaud in the article, particularly the resurgence of interest in bells of historical and cultural significance, as well as a desire to get more bells ringing in more places.

When Jaan Whitehead was a little girl, she marveled at a collection of handheld bells gathered from all corners of the globe by her intrepid great-grandmother. Proudly displayed in a curio in the family’s dining room, the bells told the story of a life well-lived, of adventures in far-off lands, and of the peoples and cultures that fashioned these wonderful objects.