Back in late November or early December the downtown Cathedral began ringing its bells every three hours. At first we thought these bell ringing songs were related to the Christmas season, but no. They are still going on, and are actually becoming a noted moment throughout the day.

About a month ago they had a week or so when the 6 am one was so loud that it was waking us up. A petition went around our area spearheaded by a local dentist and a family with small children, and now it’s possible to actually sleep through them - if the window is closed. But we like to sleep with the window open, so we hear them in the morning. I think we’d miss them if they stopped now.

Below is a video of the 6 am song. Ask anyone in Centro and they’ll hum a few bars for you.

Below is an short audio recording of the 9 am church bells. Paul and I refer to this one as “The Red River Valley.”

Then, there is the song at noon, Ave Maria. For some reason it was played very softly.

Next comes 3 pm. I took this one from the roof and if you have a good eye you might see two cruise ships in the distance. Could that be “This Land is your Land?”

I couldn’t handle doing any more of these recordings, so you’ll just have to imagine the 6 pm and 9 pm ones. I don’t think they play songs for midnight and 3 am, just ring the bells for the hours.