There was a time, until the beginning of the 20th century, when by hearing the ringing of bells for the dead one could know if the person who had died was a man or a woman, if the dead person was an unbaptized baby and even the number of priests who would attend the funeral: The more parish priests, the more social status.
“In the past it was a very complex touch, but as a result of the Second Vatican Council changes were made and currently there is only the differentiation between men and women,” explains Xavier Pallàs, promoter of the Escola de Campaners de la Vall d'en Bas (Garrotxa). , which started yesterday with twelve students and a waiting list of forty.
The objective of this school is to recover the traditional ringing of the bells that, with the progressive abandonment of the bell towers and electrification, has been lost, according to Pallàs.
Among the liturgical touches, apart from that for the dead, the one for prayer, the one for mass or the one that accompanies religious festivities are perhaps the ones that have survived the longest. Others such as the viaticum touch, the administration of communion to the sick, the last unction or the rosary have been lost.
The same has happened with the countless civil signals that existed in the past, such as the one that served to report a fire, the one that warned of the arrival of the fish cart or the one that alerted farmers of frost so that they had time to light their bonfires. around their crops and thus avoid having to give up the harvest.
“The ringing of bells was a total communication system, in the absence of radio or television it was the way to notify people of the news,” explains Pallàs, who has specialized in the study of bells and steeples in Catalonia, apart from investigate the profession of bell ringer that this school wants to help recover.
Students will not only learn to interpret the different tones and to ring the bells manually with the different traditional Catalan techniques that exist, but they will also acquire notions about the maintenance of this element of heritage and artistic interest and about safety in the bell towers.
One of those students is Víctor Rodríguez, 36 years old, from La Garriga. “This world had always caught my attention, the bells speak, they have their language,” he explains. He hopes to learn the basic notions of manual ringing to “bring life back”, together with other people, to the La Garriga bell tower, which has been without a bell ringer for about forty years. “The course will resurrect bell towers everywhere,” he says.
Although in 2017 the Generalitat declared bell ringing a festive heritage element of national interest and in 2022 it was declared intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO, the truth is that today the number of bell ringers is scarce. Os de Balaguer, Cervera, Les Borges Blanques, Tarragona, Badalona, Mataró or the church of Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona are some exceptions. The electrical system is combined with manual touches on designated days.
In La Garrotxa there is no one left who rings the bells by hand on a regular basis. The last one was Llorenç Llongarriu, who died in 2021, who learned the trade from his father and grandfather. As a sign of appreciation for his work, the School of Bell Ringers, which belongs to the Vall d'en Bas Town Council, and which has the support of the Confraternity of Bell Ringers and Carillonists of Catalonia and the Bishopric of Girona, bears his name.
