An Easter Hymn

O night clearer than the day!

O night more luminous than the sun!

O night whiter than the snow!

Giving more light than our torches,

sweeter than Paradise!

O night that knows no darkness;

driving away our sleep,

you make us keep watch with the angels.

O night, the terror of demons,

Paschal night, awaited for a year!

The Church's wedding night

which gives life to the newly baptized

and renders harmless the torpidity of the demon.

Night in which the Heir

brings the heirs into eternity.

Asterius of Amesea, late 4th century