Church bells/Easter

The Argelès church bells ring every fifteen minutes: once for the quarter hour, twice for the half hours, three times for three/quarters and four for the hour followed by the correct number of rings for the time.

They ring for funerals.

This morning I woke to it ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing...but not in the same way they do for funerals.

Later when I asked Laurent why, "Paques," he said.

It is the start of the Easter season. There'll be a lot bell ringing.

Good Friday will bring the Sanch Procession in Perpignan where statues will be paraded on the streets with men and woman dressed as if they were Ku Klux Klan members who were bored with their white clothes.

This robes of this Medieval tradition are really are to hide the identity of prisoners (from revenge by those wronged) being led to their town's annual execution. (Executions are no longer part of the ceremony.)

The red robe is worn by the leader and he taps a tambourine along the silent parade route where the statues from the different churches are carried thru the streets.. Penitents, some barefoot, some on their knees, follow.

I've only seen the Sanch once. I cannot shake the American southern barbarism of the Klan to be comfortable watching to see it a second time.

On Easter Sunday during the Easter Mass the statues will be brought outside then brought back into the church.

And there will be bells, lots and lots of bells.