Eastern choirs will be performing a traditional Christmas program from 1918.

“A Ceremony of Nine Lessons & Carols” will include the Eastern Concert Choir, Camerata Singers, members of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Charles Lynch, a harpist, as well as various students that will play the music during the program.

This program has been a tradition in Cambridge, England since 1918, when it was played at Kings’ College.

Richard Rossi, director of orchestral and choral activities and the conductor of the program, said the program had been a tradition at Eastern for more than a decade.

“This program will help show people the real meaning of Christmas,” Rossi said.

Rossi said he looks forward to this concert because it is a calm concert.

“This is my calming, unwinding concert,” Rossi said. “It’s a peaceful concert that focuses into the beauty of the season, and the peacefulness and the calmness that should really be involved, as opposed to the haste and craziness of the holiday.”

This program consists of nine readings that will be accompanied by songs.

Each reading will present one of the lessons in the program.

The readings will be presented by Pastor Wally Carlson and Richard Hummel, a retired Eastern sociology professor.

The lessons include: Lesson I: Genesis III: 8-15; Lesson II: Genesis XXII: 15-18; Lesson III: Isaiah IX: 2, 6, 7; Lesson IV: Isaiah XI: 1-3a, 4a, 6-9; Lesson V: Luke I: 26-35, 38; Lesson VI: Luke II: 1, 3-7; Lesson VII: Luke II: 8-16; Lesson VIII: Matthew II: 1-12; and Lesson IX: John I: 1-14.

Songs will accompany each lesson. Some of the familiar songs that will be performed include “Silent Night” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”

Rossi said some of the pieces have an interesting entry for the voices. Rossi said the entry of voice into “A Ceremony of Carols, Opus 28” has an echo effect.

“It’s designed in a way that the voices enter and sound like an echo in a church,” Rossi said. “The overall effect sounds like reverberation in a church.”

Rossi said the concert will help display the true meaning of Christmas.

“It becomes more reflective of what the season is all about,” Rossi said. “With the readings and the music, it involves more about the meaning behind Christmas, as opposed to the secularized aspects that seem to engulf us today.”

Before the performance, Katherine Henry and Paige Mundy, flute players, and Lynch will be performing music for audience members.

“A Ceremony of Nine Lessons & Carols” will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Wesley United Methodist Church.

The Wesley United Methodist Church is located at 2206 Fourth Street in Charleston, across from Lawson Hall.

Rossi said he hope people leave with the true meaning of Christmas.

“I hope they walk away with the feeling of inspiration and what the season is all about,” Rossi said. “Hopefully the music will reflect those ideas as well.”

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or slmcdaniel@eiu.edu.