Bowdoin offers its students many holiday traditions including the Junior/Senior Ball, the final a cappella concert, and countless holiday parties, but what many students may not know is that the College also offers a traditional Festival of Lessons and Carols service for students, staff, and community members.
The service, unlike some other Bowdoin traditions, has an easily traceable history, with roots in Anglican Church traditions of the 1800s. The service consists of nine lessons?readings taken from traditional worship?punctuated by a collection of carols and hymns performed by a choir and an organist. The most famous modern rendition of Lessons and Carols, performed by the King's College Choir of Cambridge, England, is broadcast on BBC every Christmas Eve.
Though the service itself may not be familiar to some, the songs are often unavoidable in the mall during the holidays: "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "The Holly and the Ivy," to name a few. The service also contains a collection of lesser known carols and hymns, such as "Personent Hodie," and the song that often begins the celebration, "Once in Royal David's City."
Since the creation of the Lessons and Carols format, many groups, religious and not, have adopted and tailored the celebration to their tastes. For the past few years, Bowdoin's celebration has closely mirrored the traditional format in song choice and structure.
However, Lessons and Carols also presents a creative opportunity to those organizing the performance. Chris Li '10, this year's coordinator of the event, introduced some new ideas to the traditional lessons and carols. The service will still start with the obligatory "Once in Royal David's City" and continue with many other traditional melodies, but will also include songs more traditionally performed on campus by the Bowdoin Chamber Choir: "O Nata Lux" by Morten Lauridsen and "Ave Maria" by Franz Biebl.
"These pieces are hard?and we'll have to spend lots of practice on them?but I hope they'll be worth it," Li said.
Li has also worked to include as many people in the service as possible. This year, faculty and staff interest has been unusually overwhelming. For the first time in recent Bowdoin history, President Barry Mills will not only attend the service?he will also serve as a reader. Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols will also make his debut as a reader. Professors Shannon Chase, Bill Watterson and Denis Corish will also read, among others.
Student involvement has been strong as well. Li calls his group of singers "the a cappella all-stars." The service has brought together the a cappella community as members of all six groups and the Bowdoin Chamber Choir have devoted their time and energy to weekly practices.
"I just want people to have fun and love it," Li said.
The Festival of Lessons and Carols will be in the Bowdoin Chapel on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.