Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols10dec6:00 pm8:00 pm6:00 pm - 8:00 pm(GMT+00:00) Trinity College Chapel, Trinity College, Kandy, 262, D S Senanayake Veediya, Kandy 20000, Sri lanka

Event Details

At Trinity College Kandy, there are records of Carol services from 1935. The “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” was held for the first time in 1958.

The tradition, except for few variations in some years, continues till today with a Sinhala Carol and a Tamil Carol introduced to the order of service in 1964. The Carol Service, the Advent Festival, has been held for 78 years, and the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols itself has been celebrated for over 38 years at Trinity College Kandy.

“A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” was based on an order drawn up by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, for the use in a wooden shed that served as his cathedral, for Christmas Eve 1880 in Truro. It has since been adapted and used by other churches all over the world.

The Service contained nine lessons that were read starting with a Chorister, and moving through the various officials of the church with the final lesson read by the Bishop.

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has become the standard format for schools’ Christmas carol services particularly in the UK, and especially at King’s College Cambridge where it is famously

held every year.

Wherever the service is held and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and the strength of the service derive from the lessons more than the music. The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God through the words of the Bible. The center of the service is found by those who ‘go in heart and mind’ and who consent to follow where the story leads. A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols therefore, is not intended to be a ‘performance’ for the congregation, but much rather, an inspiration to worship in celebrating the wonder of God’s incarnation as a human.