From The Roman Missal (2011), page 343:

THE EASTER VIGIL IN THE HOLY NIGHT

2. Of this night’s Vigil, which is the greatest and most noble of all solemnities, there is to be only one celebration in each church.

4. The Mass of the Vigil, even if it is celebrated before midnight, is a paschal Mass of the Sunday of the Resurrection.

The reformed liturgy is a good thing.

I think it instructive that this reform under Pius XII by a Commission with secretary A Bugnini, was completely swept away by the 1969 reform under Paul VI by a Concilium steered by A Bugnini.

Jeff wrote a previous post on the same topic:
https://www.ccwatershed.org/2021/02/28/screenshots-proof-holy-saturday-took-place-in-the-morning/
There he says

It is not “traditional” to make the Easter Vigil more solemn than Easter Sunday. In my experience, where the Easter Vigil is celebrated with maximum solemnity the night before, the ceremonies on Easter Sunday always suffer.

and

The Easter Vigil has less music than any other Mass. Even a ferial Mass has more music! There is no “Vidi Aquam.” There is no Introit. There is no Sequence. The (short) Alleluia is followed by a Tract! There is no Gradual or Greater Alleluia. There are no candles at the Gospel. There is no Creed. There is no Offertory Antiphon. The Kiss of Peace is omitted. There is no Agnus Dei. There is no Communion Antiphon.

Although the first pertains to anecdotal evidence, I think all of those points are beyond dispute. It seems unfitting to celebrate the principal Easter Sunday morning Mass as a Missa cantata without deacon or subdeacon when the principal liturgies of last three evenings were celebrated with as much solemnity as possible, but that seems to have become the common practice at most TLMs in my experience as well.

I love the Easter Vigil! I have been going to Easter Vigil's since about 10 or 11 years old when my mother became a cantor and had to be taught all the proper responses and psalms. I think the way the Old Testament readings tell the whole salvation story and the symbolism of darkness up to the moment of the Gloria when the lights come on. This is the NO experience for me and I think I have instilled it in my sons, too.

I think the same argument could be made about Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve vs. a Christmas Day Mass.

Sorry if I am missing the point.

It is not “traditional” to make the Easter Vigil more solemn than Easter Sunday. In my experience, where the Easter Vigil is celebrated with maximum solemnity the night before, the ceremonies on Easter Sunday always suffer….

Easter Vigil does not have to contend with the Easter Sunday practical problem of additional Masses to accommodate the CEOs and capacity crowds, which can rule out an orchestral Mass and other nonessential beauties, just to get one crowd out before the next one arrives. EV is for a self-selecting group of diehards and night owls, and can theoretically last right up until the prelude for the first Mass of Easter morning.

The Easter Vigil has less music than any other Mass…

This is not true of the NO, nor is it true of the pre-‘62 if one counts the Tracts and Magnificat etc.

The tracts/canticles and litany in the 1962 are before the Mass itself

Point well taken; I was thinking of “Mass” in a less technical sense and mentally picturing “everything we have to sing on Saturday night until ‘Deo gratias, alleluia, alleluia’”, which is a huge amount of music.

@don9of11

[Edited to remove a quote of another user's personal criticism which is contrary to the Forum Etiquette Guidelines. --admin]

That’s pretty uncharitable. You’re saying he would lie to sell a book, which is untrue. He’s a faithful catholic and excellent church musician who has made tremendous strides in making sacred music accessible to many people. You should agree or disagree with the points given in the article rather than make a personal attack.

@don9of11

I do think that you might not have actually laid your hands upon the beautiful Campion Missal that you are criticizing? Have you even seen the Campion Missal? Have you flipped through its pages? If you had done so. I don't think you would ever have dismissively termed this, beautifully-done, intricately researched Missal as 'wares'.

I have obtained a copy of this latest, 3rd edition of the St. Edmund Campion Missal and it is a treasure to behold, not just for the magnificent translation of the 1950 Holy Week by Monsignor Ronald Knox, but for all the details in the listings of the manuscripts drawn from, the beautiful colour pages that reproduce in intricate detail, the ancient texts from Missals that were made hundreds of years ago...even the quality of the paper within the Campion Missal speaks much of the love and effort that these editors and writers and researchers have done to produce such a gorgeous missal.

It seems to me that if Mr.Jeff Ostrowski has mentioned the Campion Missal in his article, it is only because the missal has so much detail within its pages, about the various liturgical reforms, rubrics etc. that it is only fitting to refer the readers to seek out a more detailed resource than his article. Yes, Mr. Ostrowski's article details '73 changes'. The Campion Missal details so many more such details. One should be encouraged to go to the Missal to check out more, as a natural progression from the interest of reading the said article written by Mr. Ostrowski.

That would be the most natural conclusion of an author pointing a reader to a book beyond the scope of the article.

And with that, I do believe @don9of11 owes Mr. Ostrowski an apology, for trivialising his incredible effort and contribution towards a deeper understanding and love of Sacred Music and Sacred Liturgy. And perhaps, it's a good time, to buy yourself a nice copy of the Campion Missal.

Is it just me, or do I smell a whiff of something which would violate forum rule 11?

Is it just me, or do I smell a whiff of something which would violate forum rule 11?

Is that like Order 66?

@Gamba

I am actually so new to this forum that I actually had to go and look up what forum rule #11 is. That is so strange that you think I might have multiple accounts. Do people do that here? Anyway. I do like Rule #1 :) which is why I wrote into the discussion in the first place. It pains me when good people are maligned. Especially on a forum talking about Easter Vigil, and darkness to light. I figured I'd try to do my own 'bringing some light' into the matter. Hope that clarifies it for you.

[Actually there was a case of someone who used to post comments from multiple accounts, arguing against each other's views. --admin]

Can we perhaps preserve this thread as opposed to letting it devolve into sniping back and forth about Jeff Ostrowski?

Rule #1? Do you mean 'Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly men'?
(From 'Thief of Time' by Terry Pratchett)

The Catholic Encyclopedia gives a concise history:
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07424a.htm

I think Jeff's point was that the solemnity with which the Vigil is celebrated should not detract from the Easter Sunday morning Mass, which it often does. At my parish, the Vigil according to the 1962 Missal (but see my comment above!) begins at 10:30 p.m. and is very well attended despite the length of the liturgy and the late hour, but many people don't come back Sunday morning, and the 11:00 a.m. Easter High Mass tends to be the least attended Sunday High Mass of the year—and usually a Missa cantata without deacon or subdeacon, which illustrates Jeff's point. What else would cause that except a sort of exaggeration of the Vigil? Sure, people have family activities and dinner to prepare, but that's no less true for the people at other churches that are packed to capacity on Easter morning.