The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

For many people in Great Britain and elsewhere, Christmas really begins at 3pm on Christmas Eve with the BBC’s live radio broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the magnificent chapel of King’s College, Cambridge.  For about an hour and a half, the chapel choir sings carols old and new, interspersed with Bible readings that tell the Christmas story.

The tradition dates back to 1918 when the College Dean, Rev Eric Milner-White, first modified an idea that originated in 1880 at Truro Cathedral. The format has been virtually unchanged since the 1919 service, when the order of lessons was established, as well as the custom of beginning with “Once in Royal David’s City” with the first verse sung by an unaccompanied boy treble.

The Festival was first broadcast by the BBC in 1928 and it has been heard every year since then, with only one exception (1930). Even during the war years, when the stained glass windows had been removed from the unheated chapel, listeners to the BBC and its World Service were able to hear the Festival.

Many great ideas are simple ones, and the “Nine Lessons” format is one such idea. It has therefore been copied in churches of all denominations throughout the Christian world, with many such services being held at Christmas time, the chosen carols being ones that suit particular choirs and congregations. It is an occasion on which a church or cathedral choir can show off its skills, and many choirmasters work long and hard to achieve perfection on the day, especially when introducing carols that may be new to the choir in question.

The nine lessons, at King’s College and elsewhere, are each read by different people, including lay people and clergy. It is traditional for the first lesson to be read by a young person, such as a treble from the choir, and for the ninth to be read by the priest or minister in charge, with the congregation standing.

Each lesson is introduced by a standard line (the first being “God announces in the Garden of Eden that the seed of woman shall bruise the serpent’s head”) and concluded with “Thanks be to God”.

Although the first three lessons and the last three are virtually sacrosanct, for the middle three there are alternative readings that can be given. For example, the Annunciation (from Luke’s Gospel) can be substituted by “Arise, shine, for thy light is come” from the Book of Isaiah. The readings are always from the 1611 Authorised (or “King James”) Bible.

The purpose of the lessons is not only to tell the familiar story of the Nativity from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but to set it in its full context, beginning with the Fall of Man in Genesis and including the prophecies of Isaiah that foretell the coming of the Messiah. The ninth lesson is always the opening of the Gospel of John that explains how “In the beginning was the Word” and “the Word was made flesh”.

As mentioned above, the service begins with “Once in Royal David’s City” that (at King’s College and elsewhere) is used as a processional hymn, begun in candlelight, as the voice of the boy treble breaks the silence. It is traditional at King’s for the boy chosen to sing the opening verse not to be told this until shortly before the service, so that he does not become unduly nervous.

The rest of the opening hymn is sung by the full choir and congregation, at the conclusion of which the Bidding Prayer is given, followed by the Lord’s Prayer, after which the first choir carol is sung.

It should be pointed out that “Nine” refers to the lessons and not the carols, of which somewhat more than nine can be expected. At King’s College it is usual for there to be one carol before the first lesson and two between each of the next lessons, with “O Come All Ye Faithful” following the ninth lesson and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” concluding the service after the final Collect and Blessing. At least two of the carols will in fact be hymns for the full congregation to sing, as well as the two final hymns mentioned above.

The carols are usually a good mixture of traditional ones and those that are less familiar, and it has been customary at King’s College to include a completely new carol that has been specially commissioned.  These brand new carols are often challenging for both the choir and listeners, and it has to be said that many are heard once during the service and almost never again!

The Director of Music at King’s College from 1982 to 2018 was Stephen Cleobury, who arranged a number of traditional carols for performance at the Festival. Other arrangements have been by David Willcocks, who held the Director of Music post from 1957 to 1974. These two master musicians have ensured that the music heard at the Festival is ideally suited to both the choir and the remarkable acoustics of the Chapel.

The Christmas Eve Festival at King’s College is extremely popular with the local population in Cambridge, and people have been known to camp overnight in hope of getting one of the 650 seats in the Chapel, which are always allocated on the basis of first come, first served.

As well as the Christmas Eve broadcast, which is recorded and repeated on Christmas Day and on other networks, including in the United States, a televised programme called “Carols from King’s” is recorded earlier in December and broadcast on BBC 2, but this is not the full “Nine Lessons and Carols”.

The tradition of presenting the Christmas story in this format has now become deeply entrenched among choirs and churches all over the world, and looks set to continue for many years into the future.

© John Welford