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Easter Sunday

James C. Hamilton
Updated by Lou Giorgetti



Easter 1969: The First Vatican Easter Stamps
"The Resurrection", by Fra Angelico (Scott 467-469)

This day marks the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, three days after His Crucifixion on Good Friday. It occurred, as He promised, and as foretold in Psalms 16 and 22, and in the “Suffering Servant’ (Isaiah 53). New Testament accounts of the Resurrection are in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20.

In the Latin calendar, Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring (or vernal) equinox. The Eastern Orthodox Church calculates Easter based on the Julian calendar, replaced in the west by the Gregorian calendar in 1582. In some years, the Latin and Greek celebrations of Easter occur on the same date but in other years the Greek Easter is a week or more later than the Latin Easter. In 2025, Eastern Orthodox Easter, also known as Pascha, is also celebrated today.

"The Exsultet" is the Proclamation of Easter during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. It is attributed to both St. Jerome and St. Augustine, from the 4th century. Usually sung by a deacon, in part, it proclaims:
“This is the night
that even now throughout the world
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin
leading them to grace
and joining them to his holy ones.

This is the night
when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.

Our birth would have been no gain
had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond all telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault
that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!”
On many Vatican City stamps, the resurrected Jesus is depicted carrying a banner of victory such as on Scott 1582 (2015) by the 14th century "Unknown Master of the Crucifix":


Easter 2015: Detail of Christ from Crucifix of Trevi
Scott 1582


Be sure to click on the Easter Slide Show button to see all the stamps issued by Vatican City to celebrate Easter.

REFERENCE:
  • James Hamilton, Vatican Notes, Volume 67, Number 382, pp. 28-29, 2019, Philatelic Face of Jesus - Resurrection”
  • United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), The Exsultet: The Proclamation of Easter