The New Fire & Our Local Firemen

I went to the Easter Vigil last night and was glad to see that the ritual of The New Fire has been modernized a bit. I remember back in the early days of the Easter Vigil that they used straw and the flames would go up pretty high. If I remember right one year it even set off the Smoke Alarms. A lighter is used now and there is just a low blue flame. We did have a couple of our local firemen, Marc & Tim Bessette sitting not too far away.

The New Fire ceremony used to last much longer as sometimes it took a while to start the new fire and then the items added to the side of the Easter Candle took longer. Things have been simplified to do that. After the lighting of the new fire, the Easter Candle is lit and all of the Congregation, except for children under 8 have their candles lit from the fire of the Easter Candle passed on throughout the Church.

The whole Easter Vigil used to last about 2 1/2 hours, but ours last night only lasted about 1 1/2 hours.