Saturday Jul 4, 2015
1:45 PM - 2:30 PM EDT
July 4th
Beginning at 1:45pm
Bennington Town Offices
205 South Street
Bennington, VT
Free
Annual Bell Ringing Ceremony
The Bennington Rotary Club invites the community to the second annual Bell Ringing Ceremony on the Fourth of July. The event will be held at the Town Offices and will start at
1:45 pm sharp. Back in 1963 Congress passed a concurrent resolution which requested communities to re-establish the custom of ringing bells on Independence Day at 2 pm EST. It is believed that two in the afternoon is when the Declaration of Independence was first read to the public on July 4, 1776. The Liberty Bell is said to have been rung to celebrate the event in Philadelphia at that time.
At 2:00 pm 13 members of the Rotary Club will take turns ringing the bell from the USS Bennington, once for each of the original States. Through a network of cell phones several congregations will be ringing their church bell in unison with the Ship’s bell. Once the 13th tolling is complete famed actor Willy Jones will ring the bell for the 14th time to honor Vermont. Willy Jones will be in colonial period custom and he will read the Declaration of Independence after his turn at the bell.