Christianity is full of symbols and customs that do seem rather odd. In fact there are books written on just that! The meaning and purpose of a lot of these is lost. Some happened to keep the Church from taking itself too seriously, some developed according to local need, and some were ways to try and blend spirituality and everyday living.
At St Peter’s Ruthin on Sunday 3rd March at 6pm we will gather for a short service of Compline (Night Prayer) and the burial of the Alleluia. This, admittedly strange, custom is a way of preparing for Lent; as we think about giving things up, or taking things up. Traditionally the Church gives up the word ‘Alleluia’ for Lent. This word is the great acclamation of Joy that Christ is Risen, and so we save it up for Easter!
This mock funeral for the Alleluia is more than reminding ourselves we are giving up a word – it reminds us of the hope at the heart of Christianity. That is that Christ’s death has conquered death and resurrection on Easter Morning brings the hope of resurrection to all.
The Alleluia Fast
Since at least the 5th century the Western Church has omitted the word ‘Alleluia’ from its liturgy for the season as a kind of fast. This has the effect of creating an atmosphere of anticipation that builds up a climactic expressions of joy as the word is repeated again and again and again at the Vigil and throughout 50 days of Easter as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Alleluia is the Church’s great proclamation of joy and praise. The word “Alleluia” or “Hallelujah” (from Hebrew הללו יה), which literally means ‘Praise ye Yah’ a short form of ‘Praise Yahweh,’ often translated into English as ‘Praise the Lord!’. In since its early days Christianity has used the word (or words in Hebrew) has been connected with the superlative joy of the resurrection of Jesus and the Easter Season, so in giving up this word in Lent, we save it up for Easter!
Burying the Alleluia
Since the Middle Ages there have been ceremonies to bid farewell to the alleluia until Easter either on the Sunday before Lent starts (the last Sunday when alleluia will be used until the Vigil of Easter) or as the culminating activity at a Shrove Tuesday celebration just before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
Very often the burial of the Alleluia is a lay-led ritual, with clergy participating as part of the whole people of God. The ritual usually includes a solemn procession to the church cemetery, or other suitable burial place, with a plaque, scroll, banner or even a coffin inscribed with the word ‘Alleluia’. The ‘Alleluia’ is then laid to rest with the hope of its resurrection on Eater Sunday. Francis X. Weiser in his Handbook of Christian Feasts & Customs quotes the fifteenth-century statute book of the church of Toul’s description of such a ceremony:
“On Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday all choir boys gather in the sacristy during the prayer of the None [prayers at the 9th hour], to prepare for the burial of the Alleluia. After the last Benedicamus [i.e., at the end of the service] they march in procession, with crosses, tapers, holy water and censers; and they carry a coffin, as in a funeral. Thus they proceed through the aisle, moaning and mourning, until they reach the cloister. There they bury the coffin; they sprinkle it with holy water and incense it; whereupon they return to the sacristy by the same way.”
The hymn Alleluia, dulce carmen (more well known in J.M. Neale’s translation ‘Alleluia, Song of Gladness’) was written for such processions. The hymn holds in tension that Alleluia is the everlasting song joy of the angels rejoicing that Christ is the resurrected Lord; with the human sense of exile from God through sin.
Alleluia cannot always
Be our song while here below;
Alleluia, our transgressions
Make us for a while forego;
For the solemn time is coming
When our tears for sin must flow.
The alleluia is therefore buried not in a depressive gloom but in the reality of the Christian hope of Resurrection, as Diana Macalintal describes:
This burial was also called depositio, a Latin legal term meaning “the giving on deposit.” (Gravestones in Catholic cemeteries may have the inscription Depositus, or simply D, which comes from depositio.) When the burial of the Alleluia or of the faithful departed is understood by this term, the Christian belief in resurrection is clear. As we bury our dead, or as we enter into the fasting of Lent, we do not silence our tongues because of despair or permanent loss. Rather, we do so with confidence that what has been deposited into the earth—our dead, our Alleluia—will rise again. Yet in this period of preparation, we remain keenly aware of the mystery of sin and of our exile from the place where “Alleluia” abounds. So until we return to the New Jerusalem, let us not forget the sin that continues to devastate our world and our mission to heal what has been broken.
On Sunday 3rd March at 6pm we will gather in St Peter’s, Ruthin to bid farewell to the Alleluia until Easter and pray Compline together.
All are welcome to join us for this strange Christian custom as we try to prepare for a Holy Lent.
Curious Curate 