National Ding-A-Ling Day is one of those uniquely American inventions. It’s sort of a two-fer holiday where you touch base (preferably by phone — hence the playful reference to “ding-a-ling”) with friends or family you may have lost track of during the year. You also get a free pass to be just a little bit weird for the day.
National Ding-A-Ling Day always takes place on December 12 but you can think of it as a second Halloween!
- 2000 BC – The first bell ever invented dates back to ancient China.
- 2000 BC – In Egyptian antiquity, bells were flat and hit with a metal gong during worship of the god Osiris.
- Circa 632-735 – Saint Bede started the practice of ringing bells for funerals in England.
- 1800s – In both England and the U.S., it was a popular practice for groups of people to get together to make music using bells.
- 1891 – When we think of bells, an image may come to mind of the Salvation Army — which first used bell ringers in San Francisco to attract donations to the red kettles that provided money for the poor
- 1972 – Franky Hyle of Illinois, started a new tradition when he placed a free ad in “Chase’s Calendar of Events” — inviting folks to join the National Ding-a-Ling Club. The purpose of this club was to call friends and relatives they hadn’t heard from in awhile.
- Hindu and Buddhist religions used bells to signal worshippers to service.
- National Ding-A-Ling Day is tailor-made for music. Think of all the songs you know with ding-a-ling in the title.
- Bells Will Be Ringing by Bon Jovi (1994)
- Ring My Bell by Anita Ward (1979)
- Bells Are Ringing by Mary Chapin Carpenter (2008)
- Christchurch Bells by Hothouse Flowers (1990)
- Chuck Berry’s only number one Billboard hit, the 1972 version of “My Ding-a-Ling.”
- Pop sensation Bobby Rydell also had a song called “Ding-a-Ling,” released in 1960.
- Last but not least, check out ska musician Judge Dread with his island-y version of “My Ding-a-Ling.”
- The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower (University of Birmingham in England) is the tallest stand-alone tower in the world at a height of 360 feet.
- The Tsar Bell in Moscow ranks as the largest bell in the world, weighing a whopping 400,000 pounds.
- To attract donations for the less fortunate in California, the Salvation Army was the first to have bell ringers for their Red Kettle!
- This noun has two meanings – a person who hears a bell ring in his head or someone who is stupid or eccentric.
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