Fincastle, VA

Welcoming in the New Year Together

In Fincastle, Va., “ring in the new year,” is more than a figure of speech; it’s a centuries-old tradition.

Each year on the evening of Dec. 31, members of several local families assume their posts at one of five bell towers—in the courthouse as well as the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopal churches—while about 1,000 neighbors and visitors gather outside. Beginning at 11:45 p.m., each bell is tolled sequentially every 12 seconds until midnight. The midnight hour is struck at the courthouse with 12 consecutive rings. Then a bugler plays Taps, and the new year is marked with a corresponding series of rings and pauses.

“Then I shoot the gun, and everybody rings like crazy,” says Willie Simmons, a fifth-generation participant and the event coordinator. “It’s a joyous time.”

No one knows exactly when or why the town began the elaborate bell-ringing ceremony, but locals speculate the tradition was imported from Europe by a pre-Civil War settler. The oldest bell itself, at the Presbyterian Church, dates to 1829.

And no official committee presides; townspeople have always just designated participants amongst themselves. But once someone takes a responsibility—such as that of a timer, musician, or bell ringer—he generally passes the torch to succeeding generations, until sickness or obligations necessitate a new family’s involvement. And while these specific persons are responsible for the more somber tolling phase, after midnight anybody fit enough to climb into a belfry is free to give the rope a tug.

“Let’s be honest; there’s a rigorous physical and mental exam you have to take to be a bell ringer,” jokes Bill Campbell, who has missed bell-ringing duties at the Methodist church only once in 40 years. He was on crutches.

“Bob passed (the test) last year,” Willie says with irony, since Bobby Waid may have the current record for years of participation. He’s spent 60 New Year’s Eves in the Episcopal church.

A sense of humor comes in handy, since the ceremony rarely proceeds without a hitch. As Willie recalls, one year bugler Harry Kestler lost his mouthpiece and was unable to perform. The following summer, courthouse painters descended the roof and said, “Look what we found in the gutter!” It was the mouthpiece.

Another year, a snowstorm kept most of the revelers away, but Roy “Chipper” Bolton impressed his friends by riding his lawn tractor to town and participating in a somewhat sparsely attended ceremony.

They’ve also seen several untimely rope breaks. To cope, “You get up there and start turning the wheel back and forth trying to get the bell to ring,” says Chipper, whose wife has assisted him in the Baptist bell tower since their dating days 25 years ago.

Even when the courthouse was under construction after a fire in 1972, a small bell was mounted on a sawhorse and the ceremony continued as planned.

“Once you hit midnight and the crowd on the corner starts reveling, it doesn’t matter what happens at that point,” says Kerry Campbell, who hasn’t missed his duties as timer at the Methodist church since 1958. “It assumes a life of its own. If there’s no Taps, if there’s no shotgun, it’s just gonna go on.”

Even though its origins are unclear, participants agree on the ceremony’s significance: It’s an opportunity for the historic 1772 town—thought to be the oldest west of the Blue Ridge—to reconnect as a community. Even in a place as small as Fincastle (pop. 359), work and family obligations often keep friends apart for months at a time. But virtually everyone attends the New Year’s Eve celebration.

Even those who move out of state often call home at midnight to hear the bells over the phone. Others travel from as far away as California to witness the spectacle.

Hunter Simmons, Willie’s 15-year-old son and a sixth-generation participant, accepts the compulsory nature of New Year’s Eve in Fincastle. “I know I have to be there,” he says with a wry smile. “I’d have to live with my family and the town, so it’s just easier not to try to find out what would happen (if he missed the ceremony).”

His father teasingly wonders what Hunter will do when he starts dating, and his girlfriend wants to celebrate the holiday elsewhere.

Kerry quickly insists: “He’ll have to teach his girlfriend how things are. You’re at Fincastle on New Year’s Eve!”

Kara Carden is a regular contributor to American Profile.

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