Easter Sunday is the feast of the Resurrection — the central feast of the Christian year. "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:14). The empty tomb is the hinge on which the faith turns, and the Church marks it with the most solemn liturgy of the calendar: the Easter Vigil, celebrated after nightfall, opens in darkness with the lighting of the new fire and the Paschal Candle, reads the great salvation history, and baptizes the catechumens who have prepared through Lent.
The tomb itself stands in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the basilica Constantine raised in 335 over both Calvary and the tomb. Every Easter morning the Franciscan community there sings the Salve Regina before the empty sepulchre, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch enters the tomb for the Holy Fire ceremony — a ceremony whose light is flown to Orthodox communities across the world.
In Rome, the Pope celebrates the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica and gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing ("to the city and to the world") at noon on Easter Sunday from the loggia of the same basilica. Pilgrims who fill St. Peter's Square receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions. From Santiago de Compostela to Lourdes, every shrine marks the day with the same cry: Christus resurgens.
