{"id":1440,"date":"2020-12-23T13:55:10","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T18:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/blog\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2020-12-23T14:03:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T19:03:02","slug":"christmas-hymn-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/christmas-hymn-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christmas &#8220;Hymn of Light&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the morning service of Matins in the Byzantine Rite, the liturgical poem called the Canon is followed immediately by a <em>Hymn of Light<\/em> &#8211; in Greek, <em>exapostilarion<\/em> or <em>photogogikon<\/em>; in Slavonic, svitilen).\u00a0 These hymns are usually &#8220;read&#8221; or chanted simply by a reader, but for great feasts they have special melodies of their own.\u00a0 (Think &#8220;You, King and Lord&#8221; at Pascha.)<\/p>\n<p>Music for the Matins hymn of light for the feast of the Nativity on December 25 can be found in the 1925 <em>Prostopinije<\/em> of Theodore Ratzin, who transcribed the 1906 Bokshai <em>Prostopinije<\/em> with addition material from the Slavonic <em>Irmologion<\/em>. Here is a setting in English:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1441 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"885\" height=\"478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light.png 885w, https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light-300x162.png 300w, https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light-768x415.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a>Listen to the hymn:<\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1440-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/recordings\/Misc\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/recordings\/Misc\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light.mp3\">https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/recordings\/Misc\/Nativity_Hymn_of_Light.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>This hymn is sung at Matins on Christmas, and also on the Sunday after the Nativity, when we celebrate the relatives of the Lord: Joseph, his foster-father;\u00a0 James, his cousin and first bishop of Jerusalem, and King David.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the morning service of Matins in the Byzantine Rite, the liturgical poem called the Canon is followed immediately by a Hymn of Light &#8211; in Greek, exapostilarion or photogogikon; in Slavonic, svitilen).\u00a0 These hymns are usually &#8220;read&#8221; or chanted simply by a reader, but for great feasts they have special melodies of their own.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/christmas-hymn-of-light\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Christmas &#8220;Hymn of Light&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1440"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1450,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440\/revisions\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}