Hallelujah

Hallelujah, or ALLELUIA (Heb., 'Praise ye Jehovah'), one of the forms of doxology used in the ancient church, derived from the Old Testament, and retained, even in the Greek and Latin liturgies, in the original Hebrew. The singing of the doxology in this form dates from the very earliest times; but considerable diversity has prevailed in different churches and at different periods as to the time of using it. In general it may be said that, being in its own nature a canticle of gladness and triumph, it was not used in the penitential seasons, nor in services set apart for occasions of sorrow or humiliation. In the time of St Augustine the hallelujah was universally used only from the feast of Easter to that of Pentecost; but a century afterwards it had become the rule in the West to intermit its use only during the season of Lent and Advent, and on the vigils of the principal festivals. In the Roman Catholic Church this usage is followed.