What is the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols – and what is the order of service?
from Classic FM:
This Christmas Eve marks the 101st anniversary of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, performed by the Choir of King’s College Cambridge live from King’s College Chapel.
[…] Loved by millions, the Festival of Nine Lesson and Carols is a traditional part of the run-up to Christmas for many families.
The original service, first heard at King’s College Chapel in 1918, was devised by E. W. Benson, the first Bishop of Truro and later Archbishop of Canterbury.
According to his son A. C. Benson (who wrote the words to Elgar’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’), his father “arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve – nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.”
But it was Eric Milner-White, Dean of King’s College Cambridge, who brought the service to the masses. Deciding that the Festival would be more uplifting than Evensong on Christmas Eve, he set up the Festival as an annual occurrence at King’s College Chapel and achieve instant popularity, spreading his new idea to schools, chapels and churches around the world.
The preface to last year’s Order of Service stated: “Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons and not the music.
“‘The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God …’ seen ‘through the windows and the words of the Bible’.”
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