This dissertation gives a historical overview of the Easter Vigil service. It examines the form of this outstanding service by taking into account modern ritual studies. For decades, services held on the night before Easter have been well established in many congregations. By making this event comprehensible, believers celebrate the actual unavailable transition from the cross to the resurrection. To go deeper, this work considers seven aspects of the celebration: the anthropological, socio-cultural, ethically-dynamic, transcendent, performative, structural, and reflexive-critical dimension. Together they give a broad picture of this exceptional service. Additionally, empirical examinations and a presentation of the elements of the Easter Vigil round up the analyses.