Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Christus resurrexit! Christ is risen! Mesih dirildi!
One of my favorite things about Paschatide is the hymns we sing. My absolute favorite is the Paschal troparion, which goes like this:
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
The Troparion
Georgian melody
The Paschal troparion in Greek, Romanian, and Slavonic
The troparion is woven throughout the season before Pentecost. We replace the usual beginning of our prayers with the Paschal troparion even. It's the cornerstone of the season, and maybe even a short explanation of we believe as Christians.
The Paschal Stichera are a set of poems we sing on Easter and for a while afterwards. They are a retelling of the resurrection and an exhortation to the people about the character of the feast, and most importantly, an explanation of what Christ did for us in killing death.
The Stichera sung on Pascha
The Paschal Stichera in Byzantine tone 5 (plagal 1) sung by Kata Loukan
The Paschal Stichera in Znamenny tone 5 sung by St. Tikhon's Seminary Mission Choir
More poetry! There're 9 odes (but we skip ode 2 🤷), and on Easter we sing as the priests cense the people and the icons.
Odes 1 & 3 [4:56]
Odes 4, 5, 6, and the Kontakion [7:36]
Odes 7, 8, and 9 [8:14]
This is more commonly known in English as 'The Angel Cried'. Here's one translation of the text:
The angel cried unto the lady full of grace, "Rejoice, rejoice o pure Virgin! Again I say rejoice! your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb! With Himself, He has raised all the dead! Rejoice, rejoice o ye people! Shine, shine! Shine, o new Jerusalem! The glory of the Lord has shone on you! Exult now, exult! and be glad o Zion! Be radiant, o pure Theotokos, in the resurrection of your Son!
My absolute favorite version is by Dynamis Byzantine Ensemble:
But the version everyone knows is this one, which is so much fun to sing:
Paschal Megalynarion arr. M. Balakirev
There are other songs for Pascha too, like this
Romanian Easter carol based on the troparion.
Anyways, thanks for reading. I might add more music to this page if I find some that I really like. I'll leave you with Rimsky-Korsakov's Paschal Overture, which imo captures some of the emotion (vibes?) of the Paschal midnight service.
Goodnight!
We celebrate the death of Death, and the overthrow of Hell!
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