A Brief History of Easter Vigil

Easter Vigil is so central to the liturgical year which is Paschal Vigil about which St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389) spoke as the “solemnity of solemnities, far exalted above all others.” Commodian (mid 3º C) in Africa called this day the, ‘dies felicissimus.’ And it was Augustine (354-430) in Africa who gave the service its most famous designation, ‘the mother of all vigils.’

A third-century work called the Teaching of the Apostles gives us an insight into the content of the observance of the vigil. The faithful spent time in prayer, fasting, supplication, reading the prophets and psalms during the Friday and Saturday. The faithful kept vigil through the whole night on Saturday since they believed that new life was given to Christ during the night and that the risen Lord would return to this world during the night.

During the time of Constantine, when Christianity was no longer under persecution, the number of converts increased and, accordingly the structure of the Baptismal rites, which came to be celebrated during the vigil, began to expand.

The four parts of Paschal Vigil propose single theme, “Passover/new life” and this theme runs through out the celebration of Paschal vigil.

1. Service of the light: Here, as we light the Paschal Candle, we believe that Christ is the light and we have a new light of Christ from His resurrection. This follows Exultet, which proclaims the glory of God through out the history of salvation. Here we believe that this is the night we commemorate the goodness and saving help of God in the history.

2. Liturgy of Word: Again the theme of redemption and salvation is evident in all the readings of this celebration. A detailed history of creation, preservation and salvation of man culminating in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

3. Celebration of the Baptism: We celebrate the mysteries of Baptism at this important feast of Pasch. We believe that at Baptism we are freed from sin and are reborn as sons of God; therefore a same theme runs in this part of the ceremony as well; a theme of passing over to new life. Here we commemorate the importance of water in the history of salvation right up to, how the first disciples baptized the faithful with water. Therefore liturgically it stays in a significant place in the vigil. Normally here we renew our Baptismal vows. Blessing of Baptismal water is part of this celebration where priest prays over the water. The prayer consists of the importance of water in the history of Israel right through Baptism of Jesus at Jordan and Baptism of the faithful by the disciples and then our own baptism to be consolidated and lived out.

4. Liturgy of the Eucharist: This part of the celebration is the zenith of whole celebration of the Paschal mysteries. Here we commemorate Christ death, suffering and resurrection in a more concrete way. Jesus resurrected from the dead to a new life to give us a new life and this we celebrate at the Eucharist. There is also the theme of passing over to new life and liturgically we believe that we get new life through Christ.