This time, the bells toll for her - Harvard Gazette

Bells will ring at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday for about 15 minutes to mark Harvard’s 375th Commencement. The ringing begins just after the sheriff of Middlesex County declares the Commencement Exercises adjourned. The Memorial Church deep-toned bell will be joined by additional bells, including a set cast to replace the original 17-bell Russian zvon of Lowell House returned in 2008 to the Danilov Monastery near Moscow. The Harvard Business School bell will be heard across the river, along with bells from Christ Church Cambridge, Harvard Divinity School, and multiple neighboring churches and institutions. Bells have been used at Harvard since 1643 to signal schedules for students.

"For the 39th year the bells will begin to ring at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, just after the sheriff of Middlesex County declares the Commencement Exercises adjourned. They will ring for approximately 15 minutes. Bells of varying tones hold a place in history, as they summoned students from sleep to prayer, work, or study. The deep-toned bell in the Memorial Church tower, for years the only bell to acknowledge the festival rites of Commencement, will be joined by the set of bells cast to replace the original 17-bell Russian zvon of Lowell House that was returned in 2008 to the Danilov Monastery near Moscow."

"The Harvard Business School bell will be heard across the river. The historic 13-bell “Harvard Chime” of Christ Church Cambridge, the Harvard Divinity School bell in Swartz Hall, and the bells of the Church of the New Jerusalem, First Church Congregational, First Parish Unitarian Universalist, First Baptist Church, St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, University Lutheran Church, Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church, and St. Anthony's Church will ring for the graduates."

"Bells were already in use at Harvard in 1643 when “New England's First Fruits,” published in London that year, set forth some College rules: “Every Schollar shall be present in his tutor's chambers at the 7th houre in the morning, immediately after the sound of the bell ... opening”"

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