Religious Fanatism - Sort Of ...

We live in a tiny town in Spain. Everything is great, our apartment, the landlords, the weather, the people - it couldn't be greater IF NOT.... well hear my story!

Spain is *crazy* catholic . This is the more astounding since I originally come from a town in another country (far north in Germany/Bavaria) where the pope is coming from! Bavaria was as catholic as it can even get. But what's going on in this tiny, weeny town here in Spain is not even remotely to compare...

Our apartment is right behind this tiny church. It's nothing compared to the grand cathedral back home and the other, countless large churches back in Germany.

Spain celebrates each possible catholic Holiday (go figure...), ranging from Christmas to Easter to Passover or whatever other countless catholic Holidays there are.

Not only does Spain have a big eye on all those Holidays, Spain has also what is called as "Saint's Days" and many other, often local Holidays and celebrations.

Any such day, it starts at effing SEVEN or EIGHT 'O' CLOCK IN THE AM, regardless whether it's a Sunday or whatever day

The church bells are going nuts.

It's not that the bells are ringing once, say, at the beginning of a mass, say, 12:00pm like I know from "back home".

They go off three times, EACH HOUR.

It starts with a 3 minute cacophony of #&%!***! loud bells ringing, say at 7:45, then break, then at 7:50, break, then at 7:55 another 3 minutes.

It repeats each hour, THE ENTIRE DAY. There is no break in church bells up until about 8pm at night.

This is already driving me crazy, but that's not all.

Spain must have a tradition with fireworks, because at any such "occasion", how important it might be, it's not only that the church goes nuts with bells....but there is this guy shooting *extremely loud* fireworks up usually exactly in sync with the church bells.

This happens usually very close to our apartment, the explosions are very, very loud.

Now I am not talking about "nice" fireworks which you shoot at night and then you see some colors lighting up the sky. Those are just "firecrackers" the guy shoots up, and then they explode in mid-air with the cr@p (the wooden stick etc.) falling down again, usually right on our roof.

The firecrackers are also not shot once in a short burst, but also "evenly" distributed over the entire day. Eg. loud explosion at one hour, maybe a few more. Than break, next hour church bell ringing again, next few explosions. THE ENTIRE DAY.

All this happens not only on major Holidays (where it would still be tolerable since you could at least expect it, although not less annoying)...but also if there is "events" going on, such as a sporting event. Right now there is something like a bike-racing going on or some entirely odd event I have no idea what it is.

Churchbells are ringing for the last 3 days all over the day, firecrackers as well.

This is a town where NOTHING ELSE is happening (mostly)...and it seems the Churchbells and the firecrackers are somehow supposed to compensate for this, like the only "action" happening here. It just..entirely crazy in my eyes.

The "fireworks guy" must have the exact schedules of what day and exactly WHEN the bells go off. Rest assured, wait for the bells and basically a few seconds later you hear the first "boom".

I cannot say how i "LOVE" church bells and firecrackers at 8AM in the effing morning on a Sunday!

Here is the major problem:

I work online and have very odd hours. My time is often sync with US time, it can happen I get up 1am and work til 2pm...then go to sleep.

IMPOSSIBLE - since there will be a maximum break of silence maybe for an hour, until the next cacophony of church bells and firecrackers starts at the next hour.

So..yes..RANT.... because it drives me NUTS!!!

I feel for you, I used to live behind a church that rang its bells every quarter of an hour, I even wrote to my council saying it was destroying my sleep and after 8 months of me and others complaining they stopped doing it at night time.
I couldn't go thru that again so I really feel for you.
Tell the local council it is noise pollution here in the UK we have laws about it so it may help you.

Originally posted by boymonkey74
I feel for you, I used to live behind a church that rang its bells every quarter of an hour, I even wrote to my council saying it was destroying my sleep and after 8 months of me and others complaining they stopped doing it at night time.
I couldn't go thru that again so I really feel for you.
Tell the local council it is noise pollution here in the UK we have laws about it so it may help you.

edit on 25-11-2012 by boymonkey74 because: (no reason given)

Boymonkey,

yes they also ring the bell for every quarter of an hour (to indicate the time)...I could live with that. But that here is a whole "barricade" of bells "going nuts" (I actually think it's more than this one Church alone).... the "15 mins" bells are only short "dings", I don't mind them.

reply to post by flexy123


Sabotage for a bag of nuts and a banana I could help you out .
Darn dude it may be your only option.

Never a dull moment. Poor guy, I feel for you. Church bells on a sunday morning are one thing, but good Lord...