ENGLISH TRADITIONS AT CHRISTMAS!
ENGLISH TRADITIONS AT CHRISTMAS!
NORTHERN FESTIVITIES
As church bells ring out across the land on Christmas Eve, the doughty citizens of Dewsbury in West Yorkshire brace themselves... Local knight Sir Thomas de Soothill paid for a new tenor bell for the church in 1434 - now Dewsbury Minster - to atone for his sins, and the practice of tolling the Devil's Knell on Christmas Eve began - one toll for each year of the Christian era, to proclaim the defeat of evil and forgiveness of all sins. That makes 2,016 tolls this year, finishing exactly on the stroke of midnight. "We do allow visitors (in the minster bell tower), but they must not distract the ringing or counting," says the tower captain, Derek Johnstone.
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