The carol service tradition dates back to 1910, when it was established by University organist and choirmaster Archibald T. Davison and Edward C. Moore, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. The liturgy has remained nearly unchanged from the original service, and each year begins with “Adeste Fideles” sung in Latin by the Harvard University Choir.
The singing of “Silent Night” by the congregation is also a long-standing tradition. The song is sung in both German and English in remembrance of Christmas Day, 1914, when soldiers on both sides of the trenches in World War I laid down their weapons and met on the battlefield to sing the well-known carol. The Memorial Church was dedicated 18 years later in honor of Harvard’s servicemen and -women who fell during the Great War.
Jones said carols tap into the warm nostalgia of holidays past.
“We have a lot of associations with our childhood and these very familiar carols,” he said. “But within that structure is a lot of freedom of expression in the carols themselves. So, I try to program a diverse selection both in terms of time periods, in terms of countries, and I think there is something very rooting and affirming in that.”