Midnight...Why?

[sculleywr]

My girlfriend is still new to Orthodoxy and wanted to know why "such an important service is held at such an inaccessible time".

Any help explaining it would be appreciated,.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I'm looking forward to hearing this as well. Two years in a row I've been Orthodox, but two years in a row I didn't make it to Pascha at midnight because it was just too hard on my wife and kids and I. I have trouble with sleep already, so if I stay up, I have to sleep in A LOT to make up for it, then I get thrown off the next day. My wife works night shift, so on her days off, she tries to get back in the swing of normalcy. My kids can't handle staying up late, and I don't feel it's a healthy thing to force them. Add to it the fact that Fresno (especially the part of town my parish is in!) isn't the safest place at 2am, and I'm just turned off.....but then again I really want to be a part of Pascha!?

I wish they had a sunrise liturgy like Western churches, so I get the concern.

 

[rusmeister]

My quick, off-the-cuff response would involve the idea that we go to a service to serve, not to be served, and it is not about what is convenient to us, and the inconvenient service actually underscores that. It's about our fitting into God's plans for us, not about fitting God into our plans or ourselves.

I totally sympathize - midnight services are inimicable to me.

 

[prodromos]

It's a vigil service which by its nature starts late in the evening and finishes early in the morning. When we were new to Orthodoxy we used to turn up a little before midnight with the rest of the masses in Greece to receive the Holy Fire. Only later did we realise the service actually started quite a bit earlier and that Divine Liturgy followed immediately after. We have now been getting to the Paschal Vigil for its entirety for quite a few years now, not to mention as many of the services in Holy week as we are able to get to.
For a couple of years we had my parents and all the rest of my family and their kids over for lunch on Sunday of Easter which entailed my getting the charcoal alight by 6am so that I could cook the lamb on the spit and have it ready by lunch time. Needless to say I got very little sleep after the vigil. We've decided against doing the lamb on the spit on Sunday of Pascha anymore. It is just too exhausting
Grace abounds however when attending the vigil, and it really is worth making the effort. If your church happens to have other vigil services throughout the year then it is a real blessing to attend. When we lived in Greece, our parish had a number of vigil services which we tried to get to. It did help that we lived very close to our church

 

[Anhelyna]

Well - this is what I'll be doing

Great Saturday 13.00 Vespers with Divine Liturgy of St Basil followed immediately with Reading from the Acts of the Apostles [ Ukrainian and English - chapter about ] till 17.00. 22.00 Reading from the Acts of the Apostles [ bi-lingual again ] till 23.00 then it's Prayers by the Tomb
Sunday of Holy Pascha - midnight - Procession and Paschal Orthros , Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Blessing of Paschal Foods then - communal Breakfast Feast
then back to my hotel until Paschal Vespers at 15.00

OH - and I'll be in Church an hour before each Service for the last minute panics 'have we got ...... ? ' not to mention being available to chant psalms to keep the noise level down.

We'll have some kids there for the whole thing too .
Then I'll be able to feast with the Community and sleep, when someone takes me to my hotel, until Bright Monday's Liturgy at 10.00 in ENGLISH

Once I get home again [ I'm not in my own parish - but in my second 'home' ] I'll add up the hours we spend at actual Services - think we got to about 35 hours last year

We will have, at times, well over 200 present - 2 priests, one of whom will be hearing Confessions a good deal of the week . No Deacons , my GodPapa as chanter , no choir - the people just sing

 

[Knee V]

I don't know if this is the reason, but we do know a few things. The women came to the tomb at dawn and Christ had already risen, so the Resurrection occured some time while the sun was still down. Also, both for the Jews and for our liturgical reckoning, Sunday begins when the sun sets on Saturday. So at midnight it has already been the first day of the week for several hours, and the sun is still down, and I would guess that that might roughly coincide with the timing of Christ's resurrection.

 

[icxn]

Wikipedia actually has an entry for this:

Midnight Office - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Steinbeck]

It's one night out of the year for the biggest feast ever.

 

[jckstraw72]

Bp. Michael Dahulich says it is because the Light shone forth in the darkness. As another poster said, the Myrrhbearing women came at the break of dawn to find that He was already risen. Sunrise services are more appropriate for celebrating the Myrrhbearers!

 

[ArmyMatt]

our hymns say that He comes forth from the Tomb, like a Bridegroom in procession, and the Bridegroom comes at midnight.

 

[InnerPhyre]

Take a nap in the afternoon and you should be fine. It's worth the difficulty. It's the most beautiful service in Christendom. It really wouldn't be the same if it was done in the daylight either. We process around the Church in darkness singing "Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the Angels sing. Enable us on earth to glorify thee with pure hearts." We come back to the front of the Church and sing Christ is Risen for the first time. The priest knocks hard on the church door and shouts "Open ye gates and the King of Glory shall enter." The doors are thrown open and we are bathed in the Light of the Resurrection. While we were outside, the lights in the Church are all illumined, the Church is decorated in white. We have moved from the darkness of Hades to the eternal Light of Christ, who is the True Light.

This could not be accomplished without darkness. It's unlike anything else on the face of the Earth. I have heard it described as an "Explosion of joy" and that's truly what it is. The Church has been weeping and lamenting for the previous week, but once we sing Christ is risen, our sorrow is utterly consumed and forgotten, like the mother giving birth who does not think of her travail after the baby is born. There are smiles that come from the depth of the soul and tears of joy and awe. People who your might not even know will embrace you and kiss you and say "Christ is Risen." This is worth staying up late for.

 

[Anhelyna]

Can't agree more with that .

The joy you experience as you enter the Church is an experience not to be missed - our children ring bells then - and oh boy do they ring them

 

[katherine2001]

Gurney, in my parish, parents bring pillows and blankets and the kids go to sleep in the pews or on the floor. The small children come to church in the pajamas. The kids sometimes go downstairs and sleep and the parents wake them up when it is time for Communion. I work nights also. I will get off Saturday at 7am and then go home and go to bed (after I go to Walmart to get groceries and items for my Pascha basket) and get up in time to get to the Pascha service. I am off til Monday at 11pm, so I will sleep as much as I can Sunday night and Monday during the day.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

We'll see....I heard how awesome, beautiful, incredible, and inspiring Forgiveness Vespers is, and for the first time Kate and the kids and I went to it. It was WEIRD. We felt uncomfortable the whole time, long story. Didn't feel it one bit. I found myself missing Ash Wednesday! LOL! Kate didn't like it, the kids really didn't....

We'll see....

Take a nap in the afternoon and you should be fine. It's worth the difficulty. It's the most beautiful service in Christendom. It really wouldn't be the same if it was done in the daylight either. We process around the Church in darkness singing "Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the Angels sing. Enable us on earth to glorify thee with pure hearts." We come back to the front of the Church and sing Christ is Risen for the first time. The priest knocks hard on the church door and shouts "Open ye gates and the King of Glory shall enter." The doors are thrown open and we are bathed in the Light of the Resurrection. While we were outside, the lights in the Church are all illumined, the Church is decorated in white. We have moved from the darkness of Hades to the eternal Light of Christ, who is the True Light.

This could not be accomplished without darkness. It's unlike anything else on the face of the Earth. I have heard it described as an "Explosion of joy" and that's truly what it is. The Church has been weeping and lamenting for the previous week, but once we sing Christ is risen, our sorrow is utterly consumed and forgotten, like the mother giving birth who does not think of her travail after the baby is born. There are smiles that come from the depth of the soul and tears of joy and awe. People who your might not even know will embrace you and kiss you and say "Christ is Risen." This is worth staying up late for.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I have serious sleep issues. I really do. When I take naps, my whole evening is energy city. But if I can't leave until like 2am from Fresno and get home at like 3:30 or so, holy smokes, then I'll be sleeping in until like 10am probably. Then that late sleep will throw off THAT evening's sleep so I'll be tired the whole next day and on and on....with me, sleep is a serious domino effect. If I get throw off a bit, I'm hosed. If I have to drive clear up to Fresno and stay awake in a church all night, Lord have mercy, my next 3-4 days will be less than fun, trust me! Ever since I was a baby I've had sleep issues. Drove my parents nuts! Haven't changed, unfortunately. My wife works night shifts, so Pascha being her off-night "day" off, that will keep her in night shift mode and screw up the next couple days.

It's a lousy setup for people like us, trust me!

Gurney, in my parish, parents bring pillows and blankets and the kids go to sleep in the pews or on the floor. The small children come to church in the pajamas. The kids sometimes go downstairs and sleep and the parents wake them up when it is time for Communion. I work nights also. I will get off Saturday at 7am and then go home and go to bed (after I go to Walmart to get groceries and items for my Pascha basket) and get up in time to get to the Pascha service. I am off til Monday at 11pm, so I will sleep as much as I can Sunday night and Monday during the day.

 

[Dorothea]

I don't know if this is the reason, but we do know a few things. The women came to the tomb at dawn and Christ had already risen, so the Resurrection occured some time while the sun was still down. Also, both for the Jews and for our liturgical reckoning, Sunday begins when the sun sets on Saturday. So at midnight it has already been the first day of the week for several hours, and the sun is still down, and I would guess that that might roughly coincide with the timing of Christ's resurrection.

Yeah, I thought it was being present at his resurrection.

 

[Joseph Hazen]

I always assumed it was 1) Because Christ rose sometime in the night, and the middle of the night is a good, symbolic time, and 2) because we're so eager to celebrate Pascha that we don't wait any longer than we absolutely have to.

This year we'll be going and then driving to my family's about an hour away, possibly. Now that I think about it our sleeping arrangements down there have changed so that might have to be worked out. On years when Easter and Pascha fall at the same time I've attended Liturgy, the feast afterwards, and then drove down to sleep away the morning until my family's celebration. Usually pull up into their driveway about four or four thirty.

The kids normally drop like flies just after Vespers, and then wake up for the feast after, or Communion. I remember seeing altar boys being carried out by their dads after they conked out back there. Our parish does do a mid-morning service the next morning with an egg hunt, but we've never been. Might try to go this year.

 

[xenia]

When we attended a parish that was an hour away, we used to get a motel room. Now that our parish is five minutes away, it's a piece of cake!

 

[RobNJ]

When we attended a parish that was an hour away, we used to get a motel room. Now that our parish is five minutes away, it's a piece of cake!

No cake, until AFTER the liturgy!!

 

[Mary of Bethany]

Families bring blankets & pillows & let the little ones sleep, then wake them up towards the end of Liturgy. Then we have the baskets blessed and have the festal meal. Our service starts at 11:30 with Compline, then Matins at midnight, followed by Divine Liturgy, so by the time the feast is over, it's between 4 & 5am. We go home & sleep, then come back for Agape Vespers & picnic at 2. It's the best day of the year!

As an Anglican, we had midnight Christmas Mass, which we always took our boys to. We just never had any problem with midnight services.

Mary