From the family names that adorn buildings around campus to the motto we chant at Lord Dooley’s official appearances, it is safe to say that Emory University is thoroughly steeped in tradition. Of course, the holiday season will prove no exception.
One of Emory’s longest-standing traditions is the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a Christmas service held in Glenn Memorial Chapel that features the Emory University Chorus. The service is modeled after a service first held in 1918 at King’s College of Cambridge University and tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ in nine Bible readings. Traditional carols and modern adaptations are sung between readings.
Although the first local occurrence of the service was at Atlanta’s First Presbyterian Church in 1925, the event was first held at Glenn Memorial in 1931 and has been held there ever since. Hauk said that such services are common at universities and that he believes Emory’s Glee Club may have brought the tradition back to the United States after experiencing it firsthand during a trip to Cambridge, which, like Emory, has a strong Methodist history.
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has become a staple of Emory’s holiday season and is often well attended by alumni and community members who, according to Hauk, attend the service year after year. This year, the service will be held on Friday, December 6 and Saturday, December 7 at 4pm and 8pm each day.
“It’s a nice blend of the familiar and the innovative,” Hauk said. “If you have only once chance to hear the University Chorus all year, this is the time to do it.”
Oxford College hosted a similar event, the Southern Folk Advent Service, on November 30. Whereas the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols follows an English tradition, the Southern Folk Advent Service embraces southern folk traditions. The service opens with a performance by the Sonny Houston Bluegrass Band and carols sung at the service are done in the “shape note” style, a method of writing music derived from Appalachian folk music. The Southern Folk Advent Service is held in Oxford’s historic Old Church, which was built in 1841 and restored in 1999.
A newer holiday tradition is the lighting of a Chanukah menorah in Asbury Circle on each night of the holiday. Emory’s Chabad House first organized the event, but now it also includes Emory Hillel. Jewish holidays follow an independent calendar, which means that it is sometimes hard to predict when in the season Chanukah will fall. This year, Chanukah came early and, for the first time ever, its first day intersected with Thanksgiving, earning the nickname “Thanksgivukkah.” The last time the days converged was in 1861, before the institution of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, and the next convergence will occur in the year 79811, according to an estimate by Jonathan Mizrahi, a quantum physicist at the University of Maryland.
“The lighting of the Menorah is the representation of light over darkness,” said Chabad Rabbi Zalman Lipskier. “This Thanksgiving it is particularly important, as it should remind us of the freedom of religion and that we don’t have to battle the darkness with weapons. Instead, everyone can add light and warmth.”
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