So I have a couple questions about Easter Week liturgies-- Catholic ones specifically I guess, since I'm not sure if any Protestants do either of the following:
1) I once attended a midnight Holy Thursday mass at a very formal, traditional-style Catholic church, and the highlight of the ceremony was a thing where they turned out all the lights and pounded on the pews for a few moments before putting the lights back on. I was told later that this was meant to commemorate the earthquake that purportedly happened when Jesus died. The thing that doesn't make sense to me about that is, why would they be commemorating that then, when Jesus died on Friday afternoon? Why not do it during the Passion liturgy, which I'm sure wasn't part of the service I attended? (As I recall, the focus of its readings was the Last Supper.)
2) Also I once went to a Catholic Easter vigil mass, and there they did this very long and (musically) very medieval-sounding chant where they recited the entire canon of saints one by one and petitioned each saint to "pray for us." I was told that this is only done during Easter vigils or ordinations, and never at any other time. Why is that? Why not do it on All Saints' Day or something?
In Indian Orthodox churches, which have a curtain across the sanctuary (where the Eucharist is kept) at all times, they do a thing at Easter vigil where following the reading of Jesus' death, they turn out all the lights, then turn them back on to reveal the celebrant standing in the sanctuary--curtain drawn back--holding a cross which they had ceremonially "carried to Calgary" on Good Friday, then "buried" in a coffin behind the altar. (I suspect this is influenced by the Hindu practice of ceremonially removing the idol from the temple, "burying" it, then replacing it with a new one, which most temples do annually.) They then process around the church with the cross, while chanting a hymn based on Jesus' revealing himself to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection.