Easter song
Easter chants and Easter songs are an essential part of the church celebrations of the Easter festival circle , especially during the Easter vigil and the Easter octave .
The texts sing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the transition from death to a new life in God . They build on traditional models, but there are also texts from the last few decades from the field of New Spiritual Song .
Practically all styles are represented in the settings - from Gregorian chant to minnesong , baroque music and early and high classics to modern times. The most famous Easter songs, however, go back to the time of Luther and Bach .
Liturgical chants at Easter
- Exsulted
- Alleluia
- Victimae paschali laudes (Easter sequence)
- Vidi aquam
- Regina caeli
- O filii et filiae
Some songs often sung
The most common songs sung in church services include:
- Christ has risen from the torture all (12th century¹)
- The grave is empty, the hero wakes up
- The new dawn glows
- The Savior Has Risen (in two or three melody versions)
- This is the day made by God (originally a Christmas carol )
- Rejoice, you queen of heaven
- Rejoice, redeemed Christianity
- Hail to us, hail! Alleluia !
- You Christians, rejoice greatly
- Jesus lives, and so do I.
- Praise the death conqueror
- True God we believe you
- We all want to be happy during this Easter time
¹) This hymn is one of the oldest in the German-speaking countries and from the liturgical Easter Sequence Victimae laudes paschali emerged. It has been widespread in Germany and Austria since the Middle Ages and was sung by the people at Easter festivals and - with different texts - also at other festivals (see third web link).
Text of three Easter songs
The Savior is risen
The text of "The Savior Has Risen" is reproduced below . The song is widespread in the Upper German- speaking area and is sung in very different melodies in Bavaria , Upper Austria and Lower Austria , for example .
The Savior is risen,
freed from ties of death:
who
came to suffer death for us as a true Easter lamb .
Alleluia, alleluia!
... ...
The victor leads the multitudes that
have long been trapped up
in His father's kingdom,
which Adam lost himself and us.
Alleluia, alleluia!
¹) relates to human entanglement in sin - the hereditary guilt that arose with the fall of man (Gen. 3) .
The new dawn glows (GL 859) (Bamberg diocese part)
The new dawn glows,
The cheers through the air,
and joy fills the earth,
hell crunches in the deepest ground.
Alleluia, alleluia.
The tears are now
hindered,
All mourning stops ,
The Savior lives, the Lord rose,
an angel calls out in a garment of light.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Easter bunnies, Easter bunnies
Some Easter songs that have no explicit religious content are stored completely differently. A well-known nursery rhyme about the Easter bunny and the Easter festive meal is cited as an example :
Easter bunnies, Easter bunnies,
come here, I'll tell you something: why don't you
give me an Easter egg,
don't run past so quickly.
Put an egg under my pillow - you
'll know how to find it,
or
hide it in the little corner of the wardrobe.
Colorful eggs taste great,
colorful eggs are a must,
thanks to you, dear Easter bunny,
for the great Easter fun.
Literature (hymn books)
Praise to God (Song No. 312-340), Evangelical Hymnal (Song No. 99-118)
