By the time this post goes live, BBC’s annual Christmas Eve broadcast of “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” by the King’s College choir will be underway in Cambridge, England. The event this year has been changed, as much has this year, by the raging coronavirus pandemic. For the first time since 1918, the choir will not perform live.
Daniel Hyde, the choir’s music director, and his singers recorded the program weeks ago just in case but, said Hyde, “Let’s hope we can just keep it in a drawer.”
It was one Christmas wish that would not come true:
On Dec. 18, with coronavirus cases soaring in Britain and rumors circulating that a new lockdown was imminent, the choir canceled the live broadcast. It decided it just couldn’t risk going ahead and contributing to the growth of the pandemic.
This year, listeners around the world on Christmas Eve will hear the December recording instead. Mr. Hyde said in a telephone interview after the decision that he had heard the recording and he was sure it would keep listeners on the edge of their seats.
“I feel lucky we had the foresight to make it,” he said. “Given the year we’ve all had, I hope people will feel a special connection.”
The Reverend Dr. Stephen Cherry, Dean of Chapel, adds:
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was introduced to King’s on Christmas Eve 1918 to offer solace to people who were distressed, exhausted, injured and, in many cases, bereaved at the end of the First World War. In this pandemic year many people are experiencing some of these same realities and feelings. But while war gave people a great sense of togetherness and community, the pandemic forces people to be isolated, distanced and anxious.
Broadcast live or not, I’ll be listening.
It’s Happy Hollandaise time here at Hullabaloo. If you’d like to drop a little something in the old Christmas stocking you can do so here: