What is Bright Sunday?

This article is a re-print of the March 29, 2015, issue of The Rector’s Pen, the year we introduced Bright Sunday at St. John’s. It has been updated where indicated in brackets.

What in the world is Bright Sunday? That was precisely my question when I first heard about it while serving at St. John’s in Logan, Utah. Parishioners there wanted to know if I would continue the observance of the first Sunday following Easter with live jazz music and the telling of religious jokes in lieu of a sermon. I had never heard of such a thing, but it sounded interesting. I did a little research and found that Bright Sunday is not a strange Utah custom, nor is it an observance uniquely Episcopalian. Rather, it has a much older and broader history than that.

From what I was able to gather (and my sources are listed at the end of this article), Bright Sunday, the Sunday following Easter, is the culmination of Bright Week. During that week, those who had been baptized at the Great Vigil of Easter were dressed in white, and they were “bright” as their faces shone with the joy of baptism into the Body of Christ. In the ancient church of the East (what came to be known as the Orthodox Church), the entire week following Easter, as documented in a church council of 692, was a time of feasting and celebration. In the Roman Empire, most notably Constantinople, the emperor and church officials hosted lavish meals, bestowed gifts on people, and released minor criminals from prison.

At some point, there arose the custom of boys soaking girls with water and shouting, “Christ is risen!” On the following day, the girls retaliated by soaking the boys. That seems to be the beginning of the notion that pranks or jokes went hand in hand with Bright Week and Bright Sunday.

The linking of jokes and Bright Sunday seems also to spring from the writings of fourth- and fifth-century theologians like Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and John Chrysostom. They observed that Easter was like God playing a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead, calling it, “God’s supreme joke played on death.” They referred to it as “Risus paschalis” or “the Easter laugh.” In recent years (since the 1980s), Bright Sunday has made its way into various churches in the U.S. and is widely known as “Holy Humor Sunday.” 

Holy Scripture is full of references to laughter and joy, and yet somehow Christians feel it is inappropriate to have fun in church. And so worship, by and large, in many denominations is customarily solemn, reverent, contemplative, and dignified. That’s a good thing! But it’s also good to remember on occasion that the Holy One who created us in the divine image implanted within each of us a sense of humor, and the ability to laugh. Twentieth-century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called humor a prelude to faith and laughter the beginning of prayer.

In this spirit and in the long tradition of the Christian church, I invite you to come and experience Bright Sunday on April [19] at St. John’s. Tom Morgan has arranged for jazz musicians to accompany our [worship], and [he and the clergy] will tell religious jokes in lieu of a sermon, poking good, clean (sometimes groan-worthy) fun at ourselves—clergy, Episcopalians, and Christians. Scripture readings and prayers will take place as usual, but wherever possible, will celebrate the gift of laughter and joy. Singing and sermonizing will be lighthearted. There’s also a good chance you’ll be invited to get up and dance!

It may seem odd to be writing about laughter as we begin the [second month of the shutdown necessitated by the pandemic], but I wanted to give you plenty of notice, invite you to spread and word and bring a friend!