How the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols came into being a century ago

The chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, is universally considered to be one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture.

It was built in phases by a succession of English kings from 1446 to 1515, beginning in the reign of Henry VI (1422-1461) and completed in that of Henry VIII (1509-1547).

This might lead one to suppose that the college’s famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols might have its origins in 15th or 16th century but actually King’s College, Cambridge, held its first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve 1918.

The service was introduced by Eric Milner-White, the 34-year-old dean of the college.

His experience as an Army chaplain on the Western Front and the Italian theatre during the Great War allegedly convinced him that the Church of England had to explore more imaginative forms of worship.

Although it is often asserted that the service was born out of the despair and disillusion of the Great War, this is at best only partially true because the template for the service had been devised in the diocese of Truro by George Walpole, a future Bishop of Edinburgh, and Edward White Benson, the first Bishop of Truro (1877-82) and subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury (from 1882 until his death in 1896), 38 years earlier.

The diocese of Truro only came into existence in 1876 and the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was held in a temporary wooden structure which served as the cathedral while a cathedral was being built.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Benson consecrated the completed structure designed by J L Pearson in 1887.

In so far as Eric Milner-White’s service largely followed Benson’s original plan, it cannot be regarded as entirely innovative.

It included Benson’s Benedictions before each reading, several of which were later amalgamated by Milner-White into his Bidding Prayer.

Many of those who took part in the first service must have recalled those killed in the Great War when it came to the famous passage ‘all those who rejoice with us, but on another shore and in a greater light’.

The order of the lessons was revised in 1919, and since that time the service has always begun with Mrs C F Alexander’s hymn, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’.

The first verse is sung unaccompanied by a solo boy chorister. To avoid putting him under undue stress, the chorister is not told that he will be singing the solo until immediately before the service begins.

The Nine Lessons, which are the same every year, are read by representatives of the college and of the City of Cambridge from the Authorised Version of the Bible (usually described as the King James Version on the other side of the Atlantic).

As Dean Milner-White pointed out, the pattern and strength of the service derive from the lessons and not the music. This is why the service is called a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols with the emphasis on the Nine Lessons rather than the Carols.

“The main theme” [of the Nine Lessons] is “the development of the loving purposes of God ... seen through the windows and words of the Bible.”

The singing is divided into ‘carols’ which are sung by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and ‘hymns’ which are sung by the choir and congregation.

The carols vary from year to year but the service always concludes with Charles Wesley’s rousing hymn, ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.

For the first decade of its life, Milner-White’s service was a wholly Cambridge affair.

It was only introduced to the wider British public in 1928, when the service was first broadcast by the BBC.

During the 1930s the BBC began broadcasting the service on its overseas programmes, giving the service an international reach.

Milner-White introduced the processional Advent Carol Service in 1934, due to the popularity of the Christmas Eve service.

The new service was so well suited to the chapel that Lydia Lopokova (the Russian-born ballerina and wife of the economist J M Keynes) commented: “Now we know why the dean is such a lover of ballet: he is the best choreographer of us all.”

1938 saw the first American broadcast of the service by the Mutual Broadcasting System of American, and networks in Italy, France and Switzerland also took portions of the relay.

Even during the Second World War, despite the removal of the chapel’s ancient stained glass for safety in 1941 and the lack of heating, both the services and the broadcasts continued.

An article in the ‘Radio Times’ in 1954 provides insight into the emotional value and meaning the service held for people during the war years: “In several German prisoner-of-war camp carol services with Lessons were held.

“At the Opera House of Caserta in Italy an Anglo-American choir of troops sang carols, and the Lessons were read in a series starting with a private, ending with a general. In a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp the curtain rose on a scene representing a room at the BBC. An announcer said “We are taking you to King’s”; then it rose again on two rows of prisoners, dressed in white costumes, meant to look like surplices, and singing carols to the accompaniment of camp-made instruments.’

Since 1945 the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols annually attracts millions of listeners worldwide who tune into the service live on the BBC World Service. Today it attracts an audience of 30 million listeners, possibly a conservative estimate.

The service is replicated by churches throughout the British Isles and around the world. It continues to grow in popularity in the United States.

From time to time the college is delighted to receive copies of orders of service from the West Indies or the Far East, underscoring how widely the tradition has spread.