Why Pascha Is Celebrated At Night
The
celebration of Easter/Pascha in the Orthodox Church is not merely an historical
reenactment of the events of Christ`s Resurrection as narrated in the gospels.
It is not a dramatic representation of the "first Easter morning."
There is no "sunrise service" since the Easter Matins and the Divine
Liturgy are celebrated together in the first dark hours of the first day of the
week in order to give men the experience of the "new creation" of the
world, and to allow them to enter
mystically into the New Jerusalem which shines eternally with the glorious
light of Christ, overcoming the
perpetual night of evil and destroying the darkness of this mortal and sinful
world: Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The Glory of the Lord has shone on you!
Exult now and be glad, O Zion! Be
radiant, O Pure Theotokos, in the Resurrection of your Son! (Taken from
Worship, The Orthodox Faith, Vol. II,
by Fr. Thomas Hopko.)