VATICAN CORNER
Bell ringing during Mass helps to focus the attention of the faithful on the miracle that is taking place on the altar of sacrifice. It highlights the consecration and presentation of the Eucharist and it creates a joyful noise to the Lord. But ringing bells during the Holy Triduum is not allowed according to the Rubric, the Church’s rule book governing the celebration of the Roman Rite Mass. The Holy Triduum is the shortest – but the most important liturgical season of the year. It begins on the evening of Holy Thursday and ends in three days on Easter Sunday. Since at least the ninth century there has been a custom not to ring bells during the Triduum. The reason for this is to create a more somber mood as the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ is remembered. The Rubric does not suggest a replacement for bells. Consequently a replacement device was invented, a wooden clapper or noise-maker, and its use has become a long standing tradition in many churches in many countries as an alternative to bells. The noise-makers mark the same events as the altar bells, but in a less “sweet” way and therefore maintain the somber tone. The noise makers go by various names, such as clacker, clappers, grogger and crotalus which is the Latin word from the Greek meaning “rattle.” A genus of rattlesnakes has the same name Crotalus. The noise-makers come in many different designs and one of the simplest is just wooden strips that just swing and bang together. Another design is a wooden cog attached to a handle with a freely rotating wood slat fitted into the teeth. When the rattle is swung around, the slat is forced to move around the cog, vibrating every time it passes a tooth, thus making noise. In the last few decades, the use of the crotalus in church has lessened, but recently it is making a little bit of a comeback due to an increase of interest in traditional liturgy. The crotalus also has a dark side to its history. During the three days before Easter it was common practice in Europe until the 20th century ( but is still frequently performed in Latin America today) the ceremony known as the Burning of Judas. This ceremony was never officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church, but it consists of first hanging an effigy of Judas, then burning it. The children at the ceremony respond to the flaming effigy by twirling their crotalus in celebration. It was thought that the grinding sound generated from the noise makers represents the grinding of Judas’ bones. From that ceremony the crotalus eventually transitioned into a children’s toy. Other important uses outside of Church were found for the noise makers. Long before loud speaker and electrical devices, American and British police and fire departments found that the crotalus made a good signaling device. For over 200 years they use the crotalus to send out alerts. However when the pea whistle was invented, its trilling mechanism made it significantly louder than previous whistles and it quickly became the replacement for the crotalus. Even during World War II the crotalus then called the grogger, had an important role in broadcast a warning sound that poison gas was present. Necessity if the mother of invention.
Sources: churchpop.com, adoremus.org, forward.com