1 January
"Ring a Bell Day" in Australia rings out on Thursday, January 1, 2026.
Looking for even more reason to love New Year’s Day? Not only is the first day in January the annual date of the National Bell Festival, it’s also now National Ring a Bell Day! A festival and a holiday? You betcha!
We know, we know. New Year’s Day was already a holiday. But now, the day also formally celebrates bells, bell towers, bell makers, and bell ringers across the globe. Of course, bells ring for many occasions and purposes, whether to commemorate the end of World War I, to call the faithful to worship, or to sound an alarm for a fire. But to ring in the New Year is a long-established tradition. Bells erupt into a cacophony of sound overhead. It’s a way to bring the community together and to look forward with great expectation to the year ahead.
Creating joyful melodies that resonate, the sound that marks moments of celebration, togetherness, and the simple pleasure of sharing happiness - ringing a bell is all that and so much more. By ringing bells on this special day, the idea of community and hope for the future is symbolized.
Ring a Bell Day is a modern informal festival to honour the incredible history of bells all down the ages, and their cultural importance across the world. Today also involves ringing bells and raising awareness of the need to restore many old and valuable bells that have fallen into disrepair.
In cultures all over the world, ringing a bell has had symbolic importance. It has traditionally been used as a call to order, a command, a warning, or to symbolize beginnings and endings. Bells symbolize awakening, transition, protection, and spiritual connection, calling people to worship, marking important events like weddings or funerals, and sometimes even driving away evil spirits with their sound.
However, it’s the symbolism of beginnings and endings that interests people who celebrate Ring a Bell Day. This holiday is observed annually on today, 1 January, and celebrates the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year. Of course, this is only one purpose of this holiday. Another reason for its existence is to help restore bells and bell towers to their former glory.
Once you hear a bell, you always remember the exact sound, the pitch - there’s almost a mystical feeling and purpose to the bell ringing. And the bell and its ringing are also common metaphors within our language.
"Ring a bell" quotes often play on the idiom (meaning familiar but vague memory) or use bells for symbolism (beginnings, endings, calls to action), with famous lines like Leonard Cohen's "Ring the bells that still can ring" or Oscar Hammerstein's "A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it" encouraging action and expressing meaning.
If you say that something rings a bell, you mean that it reminds you of something, but you cannot remember exactly what it is. Much like the sound of a bell we hear, the oral use of the expression in language takes us to a familiar place in our memory. Then there are "alarm bells" (warning), or "bells and whistles" (extras), while also referencing literal sounds like wedding, church, or school bells. Or the expression "With bells on" being an idiom meaning to do something or go somewhere with great enthusiasm, eagerness, and excitement - like maybe getting to the next home game of the Wests Tigers!
Bells are part of all of us, whether we hear them or not – they’re the rhythm of being alert, of timely reminders and all the many uses the messages within bell ringing convey across our communities.
Keep on ringing!
“Ring out the old, ring in the new”
“There's some bells you can't unring.”
“If you can hear it, heed it”
“For whom the bell tolls”
