Easter Vigil Vocabulary

复活前夕守夜礼 Fùhuó qiánxī shǒuyè lǐ Easter Vigil
祝圣圣火 Zhù shèng shènghuǒ Bless the Holy Fire
基督之光 Jīdū zhī guāng Christ our Light
感谢天主 Gǎnxiè tiānzhǔ Thanks be to God
阿肋路亚 Ā lē lù yà Alleluia

Some of this is a review because tonight marked our fifth Easter Vigil at the seminary. It was also our sixth Easter in Beijing (our first year after moving north we attended the Sunday morning Mass), as well as our eighth in China.

Our vigil began with the Easter Fire, something my kids really love, possibly because of this, the likes of which we may never see again.
  

More after the jump



And then the lighting of all of our candles, something else the kids cannot wait to participate in.




基督之光!
感谢天主!

 

Easter Vigil means the end of Triduum and the return of our instrumental music. We don't often get to hear our church bells ring in Beijing, but we do at our parish at Easter.



As the bells inside and out the church rang, the shroud was dropped, revealing this:



We were at the back of the church, and as soon as the bells started, Myles dashed out. With this fifth Vigil, he was determined to see how the bells worked. A few years ago he was disappointed to learn they didn't swing with a pulled rope like he has seen in other older churches. At last, he saw how they produced their sound. Even with seven bells in our tower, only two were used on Vigil.

Easter Vigil also brings an end to Lent. We sing Alleluia again!



阿肋路亚!