A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

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Program of the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (1880), exhibited in Truro Cathedral
King's College Chapel (2010)

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a traditional church service celebrated every year on Christmas Eve in Anglican and Presbyterian, as well as some Catholic and Protestant congregations mainly in the UK. The name is derived from the course of the celebration: nine Bible passages ( lessons ) and nine Christmas and church hymns ( carols ) are alternately recited and sung. The best known is the celebration, which takes place annually in the King's College Chapel in Cambridge . It has been broadcast on the radio on the BBC since 1928 .

history

The first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols took place on Christmas Eve 1880 at 10 p.m. in a barn in Truro , Cornwall . It was held by the Bishop of Truro and later Archbishop of Canterbury Edward White Benson (1829-1896). The original idea for this form of worship came from G. H. S. Walpole, who later became Bishop of Edinburgh . Other churches soon joined in and adopted the format.

The famous celebration at King's College, Cambridge was first hosted in 1918 by Dean Eric Milner-White and under the musical direction of organist Arthur Henry Mann and the Choir of King's College . According to Milner-White, the spiritual power of worship stems more from the readings than from the music, because in the quoted passages in the Bible the “development of God's love is expressed as it appears in the words of the Bible” ( “The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God ... "seen" ... through the windows and the words of the Bible " ).

The process has remained largely unchanged since 1919. The service begins in the candle-lit church with the song Once In Royal David's City . After a speech by the dean, the congregation prays the Lord's Prayer before Bible passages from the Old and New Testaments are recited, from the fall of man through the prophetic scriptures to the birth of Jesus Christ and redemption . The songs that the choir and the congregation sing together between the readings change from year to year. In addition, a new carol has been commissioned every year since 1983 . It will be premiered in the celebration.

Broadcast transmission

OB vans of the BBC before the King's College Chapel (2008)

The BBC has been broadcasting the service from Cambridge since 1928. Even during the Second World War , when the old church windows had been removed as a precaution to protect them from war damage, the celebration was broadcast from the unheated church. The transmission only failed in 1930.

The broadcast begins shortly after 3 p.m. local time and lasts one and a half hours, until about sunset. It will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 and will be repeated on BBC Radio 3 in the afternoon on the following day with a delay. In the early 1930s - the exact date is no longer known - the BBC began broadcasting the festival on shortwave on its international service, the then BBC Empire Service . The BBC World Service continues this tradition. The program therefore has many loyal listeners in all parts of the world where the BBC can be received. Today, around 300 public radio stations in the USA and Australian radio broadcast the broadcast live or with a time delay. Since 1963 there has been an abridged version for the British television program BBC Two ( "Carols from King's" ). It is pre-recorded and broadcast on Christmas Eve.

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is one of the BBC's traditional end-of-year programs, alongside the Queen's Christmas address. Many listen to the broadcast as they prepare for Christmas. There are also sound recordings from Decca and EMI . The King's College Choir has been selling the recordings of its music on its own label since October 2012 . The first release was a double CD entitled Nine Lessons & Carols (2012 release) with a cross-section of recordings since 2007.

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See also

Web links

Commons : Nine Lessons and Carols  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files