There’s an old tradition in the Catholic Church that instead of ringing bells on Good Friday, a small wooden noise-maker is used called the crotalus.

–> You can learn more about why the crotalus is used here: The Fascinating Story Behind that Rarest of Liturgical Objects: the Crotalus

While a crotalus is usually just a small hand-held instrument used in the liturgy, there’s a church in Malta that has a giant one they use during the Triduum instead of church bells!

The church is St. Mary’s Church in Mgarr, Malta. I don’t know if this is really the world’s largest, but it seems like it has to be one of the biggest! If you know more about these kinds of big crotaluses, please let us know in the comments.

Here’s a video of someone turning the giant crotalus:

And here’s a video from the streets below that shows you what it sounds like:

What do you think of this? Let us know in the comments!

[See also: The Timeline of Holy Week, Mapped in 1 Infographic]

[See also: This Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday Will Give You Chills]

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