Bilo

Coordinates: 8°40′N 37°35′E / 8.667°N 37.583°E / 8.667; 37.583 Bilo, formerly spelled Billo and Billò, is a town in central Ethiopia. It is located in the Misraq (East) Welega Zone of the Oromia Region at an elevation of 2,505 meters (8,219 ft) above sea level. Bilo is the administrative center of Wama Bonaya woreda and was sometimes also known as Bila and Falle.

Overview

Local landmarks in Bilo include the Medhane Alem church.

The Russian explorer Alexander Bulatovich visited Bilo 8 November 1896. At the time, it was a crossroads for caravans travelling between south-western Ethiopia and Gojjam on their way to the traditional Ethiopian port of Massawa. Although it was in the territory of Dejazmach Demissew Nassibu, it was not part of it; instead it was under the rule of a nagadras or governor of its marketplace. Bulatovich noted that the settlement had fewer than 300 permanent residents and, in light of the colonial developments along the Red Sea coast, most of south Ethiopia's trade had shifted to the routes through Harar to the French port at Djibouti and the British-held port at Zayla. The opening of the Franco-Ethiopian Railway at Dire Dawa in 1901 drove still more of the trade along these routes at the expense of Bilo and nearby Leika.

Semantron

The semantron or semandron (Greek: σήμαντρον), or semanterion (σημαντήριον), also called a xylon (ξύλον) (Romanian: toacă; Russian: било, bilo; Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian: клепало, klepalo) is a percussion instrument used in monasteries to summon the monastics to prayer or at the start of a procession.

Origins and use

The instrument comes in three chief varieties: a long wooden plank held in the player's left hand and struck with a wooden mallet in the right; a larger, heavier, fixed timber block suspended by chains and struck by one or two mallets; and a fixed metal variety, often horseshoe-shaped and struck by a metal mallet.

The portable semantron is made of a long, well-planed piece of timber, usually heart of maple (but also beech), from 12 feet (3.7 m) and upwards in length, by 1 ¹⁄₂ feet (46 cm) broad, and 9 inches (23 cm) in thickness. Of Levantine and Egyptian origin, its use flourished in Greece and on Mount Athos before spreading among Eastern Orthodox in what are now Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Macedonia. It both predates and substitutes for bells (first introduced to the East in 865 by the Venetians, who gave a dozen to Michael III), being used to call worshipers to prayer. The metal variety is made of iron or brass (ἁγιοσίδηρα, hagiosidera / клепало, klepalo); formed of slightly curved metal plates, these give out a sound not unlike that of a gong.

Bilo (Dimitrovgrad)

Bilo is a village in the municipality of Dimitrovgrad, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 14 people.

References