Back in the day, my grandmother would have stopped from what she was doing and asked herself "Hmm. Church bells are ringing at this time of the day...who died?", crossed the street to the next house and asked around and then came back.."Found out who - is X, husband of Y who lives in the big house on the hill next to the forest. You don't know them but I'm gonna dress up, take a candle and go pay my respects...". Weird, no? But it used to be like this in that village of my grandparents, when I was a kid.
Church bells had plenty of practical use not necessarily a "Christian diversion"*. Even if they only used to call people to masses, I'd like people to be allowed to carry on their traditions and their way of doing things regardless of what some snobbish expats might think of.
*actually someone here has called it a "Christian oppressive action".....