The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox and ByzantineCatholic churches consisting of an aggregation of the canonical hours of Compline (in Greek usage only), Vespers (or, on a few occasions, Great Compline), Matins, and the First Hour. This service may be performed (commencing the evening before) on any Sunday or major feast,[1]
any feast for which a Litia is prescribed; these feasts are marked in the Typikon and in liturgical calendars by a Greek cross printed in red in a properly shaped semicircle [open at the top] (); this symbol is encoded in Unicode as U+1F541 (š).
Order
When celebrated at the all-night vigil, the orders of Great Vespers and Matins vary somewhat from when they are celebrated separately.[2][3] In parish usage, many portions of the service such as the readings from the Synaxarion during the Canon at Matins are abbreviated or omitted, and it therefore takes approximately two or two and a half hours to perform.
Note that the Psalms cited below are numbered according to the Septuagint, which differs from that found in the Masoretic.
Great Vespers
Note that on the Eves of Nativity, Theophany, and the Annunciation, Great Compline is usually prescribed rather than Great Vespers.
Great Censing of the entire church by the priest with a deacon going before him holding a large candle. In Greek practice, this is during compline, but in Russian practice, in silence
The opening blessing that is otherwise used for matins by the priest: "Glory to the holy, consubstantial, life-creating, and indivisible Trinity, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages"
"Come let us worship God our king" and "Psalm of creation", Psalm 103
Great Litany
First Kathisma, only the first stasis on a feast day, but in its entirely on a Sunday otherwise
Besides numerous traditional chants of several schools, the following classical compositions by famous composers include:
The vigil has been set to music most famously by Sergei Rachmaninoff, whose setting of selections from the service is one of his most admired works. Tchaikovsky's setting of the all-night vigil, along with his Divine Liturgy and his collection of nine sacred songs were of seminal importance in the later interest in Orthodox music in general, and settings of the all-night vigil in particular.[4][5][6] Other musical settings include those by Chesnokov, Grechaninov, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Alexander Kastalsky,[7] Clive Strutt and Einojuhani Rautavaara. It is most often celebrated using a variety of traditional or simplified chant melodies based on the Octoechos or other sources.
