Why the Easter Vigil?

When asked about the most important celebration of the year, you will get differing responses. It often comes as a shock to many that the answers ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter Sunday’ are NOT the Church’s answer! The Church says that the Easter Vigil is the high point of our liturgical year. In fact, this liturgy is one of the oldest documented in Christian written history, with a wonderful contemporaneous account by a 4th century nun named Egeria while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 

Another question not asked often enough: what if I can’t sit for 2.5 hours? It’s important to know that Easter Vigil is one celebration where absolutely no one cares if you get up and walk around! In fact, DO that! Yes, we tell a lot of stories and sing a lot of songs. Yes, we’re here for a while. So, if you need to take a break, get a sip of water, visit the restroom, or just stretch your legs, that’s fine - we’ll still be here when you return!

Finally, to give a larger answer to the question of ‘Why the Easter Vigil’, I thought I’d offer a ‘Top 5 Reasons' to be at the Easter Vigil:

5) When you take your place around the Easter fire outside the church, you become part of an ongoing ancient tradition that dates back well over 1600 years!

4) Easter Vigil is the conclusion to the single celebration that we call Triduum - beginning at sundown on Thursday (officially Friday, by Jewish time) with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and ending with the Easter Vigil after sundown on Saturday (again, officially Sunday by Jewish time). If you started the celebration Thursday night, then being present on Saturday means you FINALLY say ‘amen’ and are told to go and serve! Otherwise, it’s kind of like you left early!

3) This celebration was originally an all-night liturgy - from dusk to dawn! While we don’t keep going all night, it IS the primary celebration of Easter, and being there means that the day of Easter Sunday can be a time of rest, food, and family!

2) It’s a celebration unlike any other - we begin as the light of Christ is returned into the church and spread to all present with beauty and simplicity; later, the Alleluia bursts from its Lenten banishment with a blaze of illumination; and as a bonus, we rejoice to see new brothers and sisters reborn in the waters of baptism. You’ll hear music you won’t ever hear otherwise! Trust me, it doesn’t get any better than this!

1) There are treats! Okay, maybe that sounds trivial, but in our family, that’s how you know you’re celebrating: someone brings baked goods! So that’s how we end the celebration of Easter Vigil - as a church family, with treats, laughter, and rejoicing - and a great postlude by the choir!

If you’re on the fence, this is my attempt to push you over to the ‘must be present’ side of the Easter Vigil question. Don’t experience FOMO, as the vernacular of the day would have it.  Join us at Easter Vigil and sleep in on Easter Sunday!