The Pummerin sounds on only a few special occasions such as high Catholic holidays such as Easter, Whitsunday, Feast of Corpus Christi (Pentacost), Christmas Eve, and St. Stephen's Day (High Patron of the Church - Dec 26th); state funerals, and at the beginning of the New Year, when it is broadcast on national television, ORF, followed by The Blue Danube Waltz.
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But the forces from swinging the 22,500 kg (49,600 lb) bell endangered the structure of the beloved tower, so in 1878 Friedrich von Schmidt, the cathedral's architect, ordered that it be rung only by pulling its clapper, instead of being swung.
Pummerin is the main bell in St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna, and so a religious Christian symbol in Vienna.