From Missouri-
While Easter is most often associated with sunrise services, lilies, bunnies, and dyed eggs, our family celebrates Easter first with fire.
In the Episcopal Church tradition, a fire is lit on Saturday evening during the Great Vigil service to commemorate Jesus’ passing from death to life. This new fire is blessed with water and is used to light a Pascal (Easter) candle to start the first celebration of Easter with these words:
O God, through your Son you have bestowed upon your people the brightness of your light.
Sanctify this new fire, and grant that in this Pascal feast we may so burn with heavenly desires, that with pure minds we may attain to the festival of everlasting light.
Our family delights in bringing this new fire home in a glass jar candle to illuminate our darkness and to reminds us always that Christ lights the way to eternal life. We keep the flame from the Pascal candle burning safely during the night and throughout Easter Day to recall the words of the Exsultet, one of the oldest songs in Christendom that is sung during the Great Vigil:
More here-
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120407/LIFE07/304070033/Fire-Episcopal-tradition-Easter?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs
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