The Day of Resurrection
An eighth-century hymn of the Greek Church, for Easter Day
This Easter hymn was composed by St John Damascene (676-749), a contemporary of St Bede. According to tradition, he held a hymn-writing contest with his adopted brother Cosmas, at the end of which Cosmas cheerfully pronounced John the winner.
Translated by John Mason Neale (1818-1866).
For Easter Day
’TIS the day of resurrection,
Earth, tell it out abroad:
The Passover of gladness.
The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From earth unto the sky.
Our Christ hath brought us over.
With hymns of victory.
Our hearts be pure from evil.
That we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal
Of resurrection—light;
And, listening to his accents,
May hear, so calm and plain,
His own — All hail! — * and, hearing.
May raise the victor-strain.
Now let the heavens be joyful,
And earth her song begin,
The round world keep high triumph,
And all that is therein;
Let all things seen and unseen
Their notes of gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord is risen,
Our Joy that hath no end.*
Translated by John Mason Neale (1818-1866).
* The Greek word used here literally means ‘rejoice’, but in the Authorised Version (1611) Χαίρε is translated as ‘hail’ on the lips of the angel Gabriel when he announced the birth of Christ to Mary, and the plural Χαίρετε as ‘all hail’ when Jesus appeared to his Apostles after the resurrection in Matthew 28:9.
* This hymn is sung in the Greek Church at midnight on the cusp of Easter Day (Pascha), in the original; a Church Slavonic translation is sung in Russian Churches. Felicia Skene has left a justly famous recollection of the celebrations in Athens one Eastern night in 1845: see Christ is Risen!.
Αναστάσεως Ημέρα, the Day of Resurrection, chanted in Greek by George Stamos, Protopresbyter of the Metropolitan Church of Thessaliotis and Fanariofersala in Greece.
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