Easter hymns: Christ the Lord is risen today

Easter morning is the loudest Sunday of the church year, and its hymns are made for full voices. After the quiet of Lent and the darkness of Good Friday, congregations open with “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and its ringing Alleluias, and the season of Easter goes on for fifty days, to Pentecost, with hymns of the risen and reigning Christ.

The first group is the Easter Sunday standards, known in almost every English-speaking church — perfect for a sunrise service where people sing from memory in the half-light. The second group celebrates the empty tomb in the words of the gospel accounts, and the third turns to the risen Christ who reigns and lives forever, hymns that suit the Sundays after Easter and the Ascension.

Every text is in the public domain in the United States, taken from a hymnal printed before 1931, so the words can be printed, projected or recorded freely. “Crown Him with Many Crowns” has a chord chart you can transpose to any key, and hymns marked “▶ Play along” have a free piano, organ or guitar accompaniment — useful for an outdoor sunrise service with no instrument.

Planning the days before Easter too? The Holy Week hymns page gathers hymns for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, so the whole week can be planned in one place.