Farmers are ringing the farm bells to create hope during the corona crisis

A farmer in Hamar Municipality has started an initiative for farm bells across the country to ring every Saturday at 5 pm.

“There is a powerful symbolism that the farmer is now using the storehouse bell to signal that everything is going well,” says Kari Svelle Reistad to Nationen.

Reistad is a farmer at Storimerslund farm in Hamar, Innlandet. She has taken the initiative for farm bells to ring every Saturday at five.

“In the cities, they play and sing from the balconies, in the countryside we have storehouse bells. Let the bells make a concert that can really be heard, to the people from the farmer,” says Reistad.

The initiative came as a response to several bishops calling for church bells to ring as a sign of hope. As many church services have been moved from the church to social media, the country’s bell towers have stood still.

“The silence is to be broken as a sign of hope,” said Bishop Atle Sommerfeldt  of the Norwegian Church, in a press release.

He explains that it is a corona-exception, and that they will call in the weekends on Saturdays at 5 pm.

The ringing of farm bells started last Saturday, and from Vang Bondelag’s Facebook page the message has spread to rural areas across the country.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today