“To gather from the air a live traditionâ€
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
21 December 2007 (collegiateway.org) — One of the great residential college traditions of the world is the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held every year on Christmas Eve in the chapel of King’s College at Cambridge University. This holiday service has been broadcast worldwide by BBC radio since the 1930s, and it is now heard annually by millions of people.
A December notice about the King’s Festival has become a tradition here on the Collegiate Way website, a minor tradition within the great tradition of the Festival itself. This year I’ve elaborated my usual message into an essay on the value of collegiate tradition, and that essay has just been published in today’s edition of Inside Higher Ed:
- O’Hara, R.J. 2007. ‘To gather from the air a live tradition.’ Inside Higher Ed (insidehighered.com), 21 December 2007. [Available in portable document format.]
I invite you to read it and pass it along to all your residential college friends, students, and colleagues.
The Festival’s live broadcast will take place at 15:00 GMT on Christmas Eve, December 24th, by way of BBC radio and affiliated networks. In the United States it is carried by many public radio stations, and that is how I will be listening. Check your local station schedules, the BBC website, or the King’s College Chapel website for details, and tune in with me, wherever you may be, and we will all listen together as a virtual college of our own.
