Christians have met together for nocturnal services of prayer since the earliest times even in the second century and they frequently ended with the celebration of the Eucharist at dawn. One reason for this may have been the widespread belief that the Second Coming of Christ would be a midnight but another and more relevant one was the early association of the weekly meeting of Christians with the celebration of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord. The Resurrection was fittingly celebrated with the rising of the sun at dawn. With the development of the annual celebration of the Lord’s Passover at Easter the Vigil for that night began to assume particular importance and as far back as the end of the second century there is evidence that this Vigil lasted throughout the night. Sadly, as early as the fourteenth century this Vigil was moved back until it began to be celebrated on Holy Saturday morning. This, of course, was absurd and, for obvious reasons, it was attended by very few people and became a complicated ceremony with little real meaning.
The great Vigil of Easter was restored by Pope Pius XII in the early 1950’s as a first step in restoring the Holy Week ceremonies and giving back to them their original meaning and purpose. It was stipulated that the beginning of the Vigil ought to begin after dusk so that the Mass which concluded it might be celebrated around midnight on Easter Sunday. In some places the Vigil was celebrated much later during the night so that the Mass might be at dawn but, sadly, this has not been adopted in most places and, because of the difficulty of celebrating at night the Vigil has been gradually moved back earlier and earlier in the evening. It might be hoped that the idea of celebrating early on Easter morning becomes more common so that the full significance of the celebration of the Resurrection as the sun rises be appreciated by the whole community.
