Bells ringing throughout city honor Harvard Commencement
A peal of bells will ring throughout Cambridge on Thursday. For the 36th year, a number of neighboring churches and institutions will ring their bells in celebration of the city of Cambridge and of Harvard’s 372nd Commencement Exercises. In a bow to earlier history when bells of varying tones summoned people from sleep to prayer, to work, or to study, this joyful noise will begin at 12:15 p.m., just after the sheriff of Middlesex County declares the Commencement Exercises adjourned. The bells will ring for approximately 15 minutes. The deep-toned bell in the Memorial Church tower, for years the only bell to acknowledge the festival rites of Commencement, will be joined by the set of bells cast to replace the original 17-bell Russian zvon of Lowell House that was returned in 2008 to the Danilov Monastery near Moscow; and by the bell of the Harvard Business School, the historic 13-bell “Harvard Chime” of...