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Prayers

The Day of Resurrection

The first song of the canon of Pascha, the chain of hymns at the heart of the Easter night service. The service books credit the canon to St John of Damascus.

Picture: Rembrandt, Christ and Saint Mary Magdalene at the Tomb, 1638

The words of the prayer

Plain English

The day of resurrection!Let us be radiant, O peoples!Pascha, the Lord’s Pascha!

For Christ our God has brought us overfrom death to lifeand from earth to heaven,as we sing the song of victory.

Let us make our senses pure,and we shall see Christflashing out in the unapproachable lightof the resurrection,and we shall hear Him say plainly, “Rejoice!”,as we sing the song of victory.

Let the heavens rejoice, as is right,and let the earth be glad.Let the whole world keep the feast,all that is seen and all that is unseen.For Christ is risen,the joy that never ends.

Traditional wording, 1906

The Day of Resurrection! Let us be illumined, O ye people!The Passover, the Passover of the Lord!

From death unto life, and from earth unto heavenhath Christ our God brought us over,singing a song of victory!

Let us purify our senses and we shall behold Christ,radiant with the light ineffable of the Resurrection,and shall hear Him say, in accents clear: Rejoice!as we sing the song of victory.

For meet is it that the heavens should rejoice,and that the earth should be glad,and that the whole world, both visible and invisible, should keep the Feast.For Christ is risen, the everlasting joy!

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, with Isabel Hapgood’s 1906 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church, 1906.

Where Hapgood says “the Passover”, the plain wording keeps the Greek word, Pascha.

When it is said

On Easter night the priest begins the canon of Pascha with its first verse.

All sing “Christ is risen from the dead!” between its verses. The choir sings the first verse again to close the song, then “Christ is risen” three times.

In Russian practice the whole canon is sung again at Matins on four later Sundays of the Easter season.

Where it comes from

Author by tradition

St John of Damascus and St Gregory

The service books credit the canon of Pascha to St John of Damascus. In a short commentary on the canon, Fr Michael Zheltov notes that it quotes St Gregory the Theologian’s Easter sermons word for word in several places. Its very first words match the opening of the sermon Gregory preached on Easter Day in AD 362: “It is the Day of the Resurrection.”

Fr Michael Zheltov, “A short commentary on the canon of Pascha”, Azbuka Very (in Russian); St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 1, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, volume 7 (1894)

The English hymn

The Easter hymn “The Day of Resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad” is the canon’s first song in English verse. The English Hymnal of 1906 prints it as St John of Damascus’s, about AD 750, in John Mason Neale’s translation. Its three verses follow the song’s three stanzas.

The English Hymnal (1906), hymn 137

What the words mean

Pascha and the crossing

Pascha is the Passover, the night Israel left Egypt (Exodus 12:11). It is also the Orthodox name for Easter. In a canon, the opening verse of each song usually looks back to a song of the Bible. This one recalls the song Israel sang after crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1). As Israel was brought across the sea, Christ has brought us across from death to life (John 5:24).

Fr Michael Zheltov, “A short commentary on the canon of Pascha”, Azbuka Very (in Russian)

The Scripture in it

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”

Exodus 15:1 Echoed Israel’s song of victory after crossing the Red Sea.

This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.

Exodus 12:11 Echoed “It is the LORD’s Passover.”

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.

John 5:24 Echoed Crossed over from death to life.

Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him.

Matthew 28:9 Echoed The risen Jesus greets the women with the same word, “Rejoice!” (the BSB has “Greetings!”).

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it.

Psalm 96:11 Echoed “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.”

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Greek

Ἀναστάσεως ἡμέρα λαμπρυνθῶμεν Λαοί,

Πάσχα Κυρίου, Πάσχα·

ἐκ γὰρ θανάτου πρὸς ζωήν, καὶ ἐκ γῆς πρὸς οὐρανόν,

Χριστὸς ὁ Θεός, ἡμᾶς διεβίβασεν,

ἐπινίκιον ᾄδοντας.

Καθαρθῶμεν τὰς αἰσθήσεις, καὶ ὀψόμεθα, τῷ ἀπροσίτῳ φωτὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως, Χριστὸν ἐξαστράπτοντα, καί, Χαίρετε, φάσκοντα, τρανῶς ἀκουσόμεθα, ἐπινίκιον ᾄδοντες.

Οὐρανοὶ μὲν ἐπαξίως εὐφραινέσθωσαν, γῆ δὲ ἀγαλλιάσθω, ἑορταζέτω δὲ κόσμος, ὁρατός τε ἅπας καὶ ἀόρατος· Χριστὸς γὰρ ἐγήγερται, εὐφροσύνη αἰώνιος.

From the Greek Pentecostarion, Matins of Pascha, on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s Greek liturgical texts site.

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