Ringing the Bell

On New Year's Eve members of the family are known to ring the bell in The United Methodist Church. The bell is rung once for every year of the century that has passed (i.e. to ring in 2015, the bell was rung 15 times). There was considerable debate approaching December 31, 1999 as to how many rings were appropriate: zero, or one hundred? In the end, 100 won out - both to mark the end of the hundredth year of the twentieth century, and because ringing a bell 100 times is more fun than no times at all.