†¢Night.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
In a general sense, it indicated among the Romans previous times, of preparation, of vigilance of something. It comes from the verb “vigilare”, to observe, to see, to take care of. In the language of the Christians it soon had the meaning of a nocturnal prayer with which a party was prepared or the mood for an event was prepared.
The idea of vigil was ordinarily associated with prayer, especially in times and places of persecution and difficulty. Little by little, it was associated with certain prearranged prayers in which, by candlelight and sometimes in remote places, such as the catacombs of Rome, psalms were recited, hymns were sung, sermons and evangelical stories were heard, the Eucharist. At dawn, the assembly was usually dissolved.
Very possibly the custom came among the first Christians from Jewish environments, as stated in some Psalms or in prophetic or wisdom texts: Salm.118.62; Isaiah 29.6.
Also the example of Christ himself was an incentive for this practice, remembering the whole nights of prayer that the Master himself had made before the knowledge of his disciples: Lk. 6.12; Lc. 12. 35-40; Mc. 13.33-35.
It is also stated that the Apostles practiced vigils from the earliest times: Ac. 16.25; done 20.7-11. St. Paul sometimes spoke of them: Thess. 5. 5-6; Eph. 6.18.
The concept of vigil was extended to other practices associated with penitential action and the spiritual attitude of keeping watch at night. Vigil was also called the “night prayer”, the “festive preparation” on the eve, the “penitential abstinence or fasting done as preparation, even the” candle or mourning “before the deceased on the night before burial.
It is also interesting to remember that in many places the vigil soon acquired a catechetical dimension, turning it into an opportune time for the formation and strengthening of the faith, with the homily being the most intense element of the celebration.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
See NIGHT.
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
fulake (fulakhv, 5438), is used: (a) with the meaning of “a watch” or “candle”, Luk 2:8, lit.: “(keeping, fulasso) watches”, translated “they kept the watches”; (b) of the time during which guard was posted during the night, a watch of the night (Mat 14:25; 24.43; KJV: “hour”; KJV: “candle”; Mk 6.48; Luk 12:38). See HOSTEL, DUNGEON, GUARD, LAIR, CANDLE. Among the Jews the night was divided into three watches (see, eg, Exo 14:24; Jdg 7:19), a custom that continued throughout the rule of Rome. The Romans divided the night into four watches; this was recognized among the Jews (see Mark 13.35). Note: For agrupnia, translated “vigils” in 2 Cor 6.5 (RV); 11.27 (RV), see WATCHWORLD. Cf. agrupneo, see VELAR, No. 3.
Source: Vine New Testament Dictionary
(Or eve; Latin Vigil; Greek, pannychis).
In the first centuries, during the night before each festival, a vigil was held. The faithful gathered in the evening at the place or church where the feast was to be celebrated and prepared themselves with prayers, readings from Holy Scripture (now the offices of Vespers and Matins), and sometimes also by hearing a sermon. On such occasions, as on fast days in general, Mass was also celebrated in the evening, before Vespers of the following day. Almost at dawn people would disperse in the streets and houses near the church to wait for the solemn morning services. This vigil was a regular institution of Christian life and was advocated and highly recommended by St. Augustine and by St. Jerome (see Pleithner, “Aeltere Geschichte des Breviergebetes”, pp. 223 sqq.). The morning intermission gave rise to serious abuses; people partyed and danced in the streets and halls around the church (Dundo, “Rat. Div. off.”, VI, 7). Saint Jerome speaks of these irregularities (Epist. ad Ripuarium).
As the festivals multiplied, the number of vigils was greatly reduced. But the abuses could only be stopped by abolishing the vigils. And where they could not be repealed immediately and completely, they began in the afternoon. A synod held at Rouen in 1231 forbade all vigils except those held before the patron saint of a church (Hefele, “Conciliengeschichte”, V, 1007). Instead of nocturnal observances, the bishops introduced for the laity a fast for the day before the feast, which Durando (loc. cit.) calls “jejunium dispensationis”. Honorius of Auxerre, in 1152 (Gemma Animae, III, 6), and others thus explain the origin of this fast, which, however, existed long before the abolition of these nocturnal meetings. Theophilus of Alexandria (d. 412) mentions the Christmas Eve fast; Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407), the one before the Epiphany; the Sacramentary of San León, the one before Pentecost. Pope Nicholas I (d. 867), in his reply to the Bulgarians, speaks of fasting on Christmas Eve and the Assumption. The Synod of Erfurt (932) associates a fast with each vigil. The fact that the people were not allowed to eat or drink before the Vigil services (Vespers and Matins) ended, after midnight, explains the excesses of which councils and writers speak.
The Seligenstadt Synod (1022) mentions the vigils on the eve of Christmas, Epiphany, the Feast of the Apostles, the Assumption of Mary, St. Lawrence, and All Saints, in addition to the two-week fast before the Nativity of St. John . After the eleventh century, the fast, Office and Mass of the night vigil were transferred to the eve of the feast; and even now the liturgy of Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil) shows, in all its parts, that it was originally not celebrated on Saturday morning, but during Easter night. From then on, the day before the party was called a vigil. A similar celebration before the major festival also exists in the Greek Orthodox Church, and is called pannychis or hagrypnia.
In the West only the oldest festivals have vigils; even the first-class feasts introduced after the 13th century (Feast of Corpus Christi, Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) have no vigils, except for the Immaculate Conception, which Pope Leo XIII (November 30, 1879) designated especially for this distinction. In addition to Holy Saturday, the number of vigils in the Roman calendar is seventeen, namely Christmas Eve, Epiphany, Ascension, Pentecost, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, the eight feasts of the Apostles, Saint John the Baptist, San Lorenzo and All Saints. Some dioceses and religious orders have particular vigils, for example, the Servites, on the Saturday before the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary; the Carmelites, on the eve of the Feast of Mount Carmel. In the United States only four of these vigils are fast days: the vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption, and All Saints.
The vigils of Christmas, Epiphany, and Pentecost are called vigiliae majores; they have their own (semi-double) Office, and Christmas Eve, from Lauds onwards, is celebrated as a double feast. The rest are vigiliae minorea, or common, and have the trade of fair. On the occasion of the reform of the Breviary, in 1568, a homily on the Gospel of the Vigil was added, an innovation not accepted by the Cistercians. If a vigil falls on a Sunday, according to the present rubrics, it is celebrated on the previous Saturday; during the Middle Ages in many churches it was attached to the Sunday Office. If it occurs on a double or semi-double feast, it is limited to a commemoration at Lauds and Mass (a first-class feast excludes this commemoration), the ninth reading in the Breviary, and the last Gospel at Mass. If this occurs on a day within the ordinary octave, the Vigil Mass is said, the Office of the octave; if it occurs at a major fair, the vigil is omitted from the Breviary and is commemorated only at Mass, if the fair has its own Mass; if not (for example, in Advent), the Vigil Mass is said, and the fair is commemorated. In the Ambrosian Liturgy of Milan only the vigils of Christmas and Pentecost are celebrated, at least one special Mass; the other vigils exist only in the calendar, but are not celebrated in the liturgy. In the Mozarabic rite, only Christmas has a vigil; a fast is observed three days before Epiphany and four days before Pentecost; the other watches are unknown.
Bibliography: BINTERIM, Die Denkwurdigkeiten der christ-katholischen Kirche (Mainz, 1829); SCHOED in Kirchenlexicon, sv VIGIL; General Rubricae Breviarii Romani, tit. 6; Rubricae general Missalis Rom., tit. 3; PLEITHNER, Aelteste Geschichte des Breviergebets (Kempten, 1887), #284, 360.
Source: Holweck, Frederick. “Eve of a Feast.” The Catholic Encyclopaedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05647a.htm
Translated by Luz María Hernández Medina. rc
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia