Church bell in the context of Wedding

A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell towers, often part of a municipal building, an educational establishment, or a tower built specifically to house a carillon. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, as a public service.

The term campanile (/ˌkæmpəˈniːli, -leɪ/ KAM-pə-NEE-lee, -⁠lay, US also /ˌkɑːm-/ KAHM-, Italian: [kampaˈniːle]), from Italian and deriving from campana "bell", is synonymous with bell tower; though, in English usage, campanile tends to be used to refer to a free standing bell tower. A bell tower may also in some traditions be called a belfry, though this term may also refer specifically to the substructure that houses the bells and the ringers rather than the complete tower.

The Cry of Dolores (Spanish: Grito de Dolores) occurred in Dolores, Mexico, on 16 September 1810, when Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell and gave the call to arms that triggered the Mexican War of Independence. The Cry of Dolores is most commonly known by the locals as El Grito de Independencia (The Independence Cry).

There are 13 church bells in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris; 10 main bells are mounted in the two main bell towers and 3 smaller bells in the sanctuary. Notre-Dame used to have other bells in the spire, but these were destroyed in a fire in 2019.

For most of the cathedral's history, the bells have been primarily used as a striking clock, to call to prayer for the Angelus, and to announce and participate in Divine Offices and special services. They have also sometimes been used as a tocsin or to commemorate historic events. As such they have become a familiar part of life in Paris, where they are known as "the cathedral's voice."

Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.

Christmas celebrations in the denominations of Western Christianity have long begun on Christmas Eve, due in part to the Christian liturgical day starting at sunset, a practice inherited from Jewish tradition, and based on the story of Creation in the Book of Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day." Many churches still ring their church bells and hold prayers in the evening; for example, the Nordic Lutheran churches. Since tradition holds that Jesus was born at night (based in Luke 2:6-8), Midnight Mass is celebrated on Christmas Eve, traditionally at midnight, in commemoration of his birth. The idea of Jesus being born at night is reflected in the fact that Christmas Eve is referred to as Heilige Nacht (Holy Night) in German, Nochebuena (the Good Night) in Spanish and similarly in other expressions of Christmas spirituality, such as the song "Silent Night, Holy Night".

Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 1867, acquired more businesses, and began branching out into military hardware and shipbuilding.

In 1911, the company expanded into aircraft manufacture and opened a flying school. They expanded even further into electrical and railway manufacturing, and in 1928 acquired an interest in the Supermarine.

Bellfounding is the casting and tuning of large bronze bells in a foundry for use such as in churches, clock towers and public buildings, either to signify the time or an event, or as a musical carillon or chime. Large bells are made by casting bell metal in moulds designed for their intended musical pitches. Further fine tuning is then performed using a lathe to shave metal from the bell to produce a distinctive bell tone by sounding the correct musical harmonics.

Bellfounding in East Asia dates from about 2000 BCE and in Europe from the 4th or 5th century CE. In Britain, archaeological excavations have revealed traces of furnaces, showing that bells were often cast on site in pits in a church or its grounds. Centralised foundries became common when railways allowed easy transportation of bells, leading to the dominance of founders such as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and John Taylor & Co of Loughborough.

Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within an ensemble. Each bell is a metal tube, 30–38 mm (1+1⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, tuned by altering its length. Its standard range is C₄–F₅, though many professional instruments reach G₅. Tubular bells are often replaced by studio chimes, which are smaller and usually less expensive instruments. Studio chimes are similar in appearance to tubular bells, but each bell has a smaller diameter than the corresponding bell on tubular bells.

Tubular bells are usually struck on the top edges of the tubes with a rawhide- or plastic-headed hammer. A sustain pedal may be attached to the instrument to allow damping and un-damping of all the bells at once. Very loud high-pitched overtones can be produced by vibrating the bottoms of the tubes with a violin bow.

A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day.

Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, audible signals (even signal guns) have limited range. Busy seaports used a visual signal, the dropping of a ball, to allow mariners to check the chronometers used for navigation. The advent of electrical telegraphs allowed widespread and precise distribution of time signals from central observatories. Railways were among the first customers for electrical time signals, which allowed synchronization of their operations over wide geographic areas. Dedicated radio time signal stations transmit a signal that allows automatic synchronization of clocks, and commercial broadcasters still include time signals in their programming.