What time was your Easter Vigil?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Justin1224
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Justin1224

Guest
Also, when does your church turn on the lights during the vigil?

Our vigil was at 7:30. When I found out the time of the vigil which was before Lent started, I thought it might be too early, and that it wouldn’t be dark enough. In fact, after doing some research I discovered that most of the parishes in our diocese had their vigil at 7:30. It wasn’t really dark as our sunset was at 7:08 but after going inside the church after the service of light outside, it was dark in the church. We do all our readings/psalms/prayers in the dark and don’t turn on the lights until the Gloria. Thats the way I prefer it to be.
 
Our Easter Vigils use to be at 7pm every year, but when we got a new bishop he changed the Easter Vigils to 8pm this year. I didn’t know the Vigils shouldn’t start until dark.
 
I always check with the Navel Observatory as to the time of sunset on Easter so that we can plan our start time accordingly. This year we started at 8PM. Next year we might have to start later since Easter is later.
 
Ours started at 7:00 PM, so it wasn’t dark out. That was a bummer (and a violation from what I’ve seen here), but it was still a beautiful service. It was dark by the time we got to the good stuff anyway. 😛
 
8pm for me. It was my first time attending the vigil. It was beautiful!!
 
Ours started at 9. The lights got turned on during the Gloria (so after the OT readings, and after the priest declares Christ is risen I believe).
 
Ours began at 6:30 PM - well before sunset at 7:50 PM, which is about 20 minutes before dark.

It kinda bums me that we start so early, even though our pastor acknowledges it to be so. The reason we start early is due to two reasons. First, the parish starts all services on the Triddum at 6:30 PM - it’s easy for everyone to remember. Secondly, we have only one priest and he is 78 years old. He has to do the Vigil Mass, which was almost 3 hours long, plus on Easter Sunday there are four masses (6:30 AM, 8:00 AM, 10:30 AM, and 5:00 PM).
 
Ours started at 7:30 although it got started a bit late so maybe 7:45. It was dark enough by the time the fire got started.
 
Our congregation is pretty used to reading along with the Missalettes.🙂

But for the Easter Vigil, it takes a lot away if there are flashlights and little illuminators around to light up individuals so they can see. 😛

How do you handle the darkness and the inability of people in the pews to read along with the Lectors? :confused:

(I am also looking at getting something to prevent the light from the pulpit from shining out into the congregation so we can listen to the Lector without shining into the seats)
 
Vigil was at 8:30 pm this year. They always check the time of sunset every year, which is nice. Lights came up at the Gloria at which point, as always, I promptly burst into tears of joy.

Happy Easter!
 
the one I attended was at 9 PM and it was my first time attending. very beautiful and a great blessing to see the baptisms, confirmations, and first communions 🙂
 
Joannm said:
I always check with the Navel Observatory as to the time of sunset on Easter so that we can plan our start time accordingly. This year we started at 8PM. Next year we might have to start later since Easter is later.
Click to expand...
What would a bunch of people looking at belly buttons know about the time of sunset? Oh, wait . . . you mean the Naval Observatory.

I like the Muslim way of determining sunrise/sunset for Ramadan: When one can no longer distinguish between a black thread and a white thread held at arm’s length.

AMDG
jsa
 
Our Easter Vigil started at 7pm when it was dark. The Lights of the Church came back on after the Exultet
 
Whence the regulation that Easter Vigil should not commence until a certain level of darkness prevails? I can understand waiting for sunset, but is that a rule? Just curious.

AMDG
jsa
 
blackrobe said:
Whence the regulation that Easter Vigil should not commence until a certain level of darkness prevails? I can understand waiting for sunset, but is that a rule? Just curious.

AMDG
jsa
Click to expand...
Yes it’s the rule. The fire should really be dispelling the night. From Paschale Solemnitatis:
A. The Easter Vigil
77. According to a most ancient tradition, this night is “one of vigil for the Lord”, (79) and the Vigil celebrated during it, to commemorate that holy night when the Lord rose from the dead, is regarded as the “mother of all holy vigils”. (80) For in that night the Church keeps vigil, waiting for the resurrection of the Lord, and celebrates the sacraments of Christian initiation. (81)
1. The meaning of the nocturnal character of the Easter Vigil
78. “The entire celebration of the Easter Vigil takes place at night. It should not begin before nightfall; it should end before daybreak on Sunday”. (82) This rule is to be taken according to its strictest sense. Reprehensible are those abuses and practices which have crept in in many places in violation of this ruling, whereby the Easter Vigil is celebrated at the time of day that it is customary to celebrate anticipated Sunday Masses. (83)
Those reasons which have been advanced in some quarters for the anticipation of the Easter Vigil, such as lack of public order, are not put forward in connection with Christmas night, nor other gatherings of various kinds.
Click to expand...
Our Bishop sent explicit instructions that the Vigil was not to start before 9 p.m. Of course that meant that the pastor for the Mission down the road from us ordered his stand-in to start at 7. Ours started at 9. The lights were off until the Gloria but it’s my understanding that they should come on after the Exsultet since Easter has now been proclaimed.

As for following along in their missalettes – for one night they don’t.
 
Justin1224 said:
Also, when does your church turn on the lights during the vigil?
Click to expand...
Hi Justin,
Bear in mind I’m not Catholic just yet, and have only been flanking masses for the past 12 to 18 months, and also this was my first Easter vigil attended.
Here on the western frontier of the eastern time zone an 8:45pm start was plenty dark. I arrived at 8:58 by mistake, and the house lights were already on, but everyone still had their candles lighted. So we did not rely on candlelight until the Gloria, and if my memory is correct we extinguished our personal candles before we sat down for the reading of the creation account. Clearly, I wish I’d been there for the procession and all.
For my part — like our start time, but your rubric with the candles/darkness.
Greatest of all is the event we sought to celebrate.
Wes
 
Ours always starts at 7pm. Some years, it’s after sunset and some years it’s a little before. But it’s consistent.

Although I appreciate the rules, going much later would make the vigil a hardship for many. We are a parish with a large geographic area and a demographic skewed toward the elderly. Vigil is also the only English language Mass for Easter. 7pm is a good practical time.
 
Our Vigil started at 8:00 PM, it was completely dark by then and seeing the church fill with the candle light was beautiful and moving.
 
The outside candle part started a few minutes after 8. We’re never very prompt I’m afraid. By the time they came inside, it was quite dark outside and only candles and the small reading light at the ambow. Or ambo. I don’t know how to spell that. We sing the Psalms in the dark, and only the cantor really needs to be able to see the music. I don’t remember exactly when the lights came on, but I know they were on by the time we sang the Gloria…good thing since it was a new Gloria, and the melody is a little unexpected.

We only had one person in RCIA this year, and seldom more than 3 anyway. But this one was Baptized, Confirmed, received First Communion and then got married! She and her husband were married in a civil ceremony a few years ago. A few years ago, right before Mass, there was an accident out in front of the church. The pastor wasn’t celebrating Mass that evening, but he ran outside and gave the person who was hit crossing the street the last rites. We just need to have someone ordained, and we’ll have had every sacrament done on a Holy Saturday.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top