International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day is just under a month away. Here are some ideas and planning suggestions from FASworld and the Red Shoes Rock team on how to plan a Bell Concordance or ideas for a minute of reflection. These can be group activities or a reflection you undertake on your own if your community is not hosting an event near you.


The FASD Bell Concordance

What is the Bell Concordance?

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Concordance: The fact of agreeing or being concordant; agreement, harmony…. An agreeable or satisfactory blending of musical sounds or notes; harmony.)

The Bell Concordance is relatively easy to organize, and many have been held to celebrate International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day. This can be done inside or outside a church, with ringing church bells or carillons, in a school, with children ringing tiny bells, in a park, ringing wind chimes or using a cell phone.

From FASworld:

“On September 9, 1999, bells around the world marked the “magic minute” at 9:09 a.m., and we named this ringing of bells, “The FASD Bell Concordance.” It was so successful that other organizations have picked up this term and copied it!

We (Bonnie Buxton, Teresa Kellerman, and Brian Philcox) came up with the bell idea as there is a purity about bells that reminds us of the innocence of children. As well, bells are historically associated with warnings, alarms, marking important moments, and simply pealing for the joy of connecting with the community. FASDay is all of these things.

On FASDay 2000, even more bells and other percussion instruments were played – ranging from the first mission bell in New Zealand to the historic 56 bell carillon in Cape Town, South Africa, to tiny bells rung by school children, and wind chimes and rain sticks played by native Canadians.”

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