The Exsultet (spelled in pre-1920 editions of the Roman Missal as Exultet), also known as the Easter Proclamation (Latin: Praeconium Paschale), is a lengthy sung proclamation delivered before the paschal candle, ideally by a deacon, during the Easter Vigil in the Roman Rite of Mass. In the absence of a deacon, it may be sung by a priest or by a cantor. It is sung after a procession with the paschal candle before the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word. It is also used in Anglican and various Lutheran churches, as well as other Western Christian denominations.

Since the 1955 revision of the Holy Week rites, the Roman Missal explicitly gives the title Praeconium (proclamation or praise) to the Exsultet, as it already did implicitly in the formula it provided for blessing the deacon before the chant: ut digne et competenter annunties suum Paschale praeconium. Outside Rome, use of the paschal candle appears to have been a very ancient tradition in Italy, Gaul, Spain and perhaps, from the reference by Augustine of Hippo (De Civ. Dei, XV, xxii), in Africa. The Liber Pontificalis attributes to Pope Zosimus its introduction in the local church in Rome.^{[citation needed]}

The formula used for the Praeconium was not always the Exsultet, though it is perhaps true to say that this formula has survived, where other contemporary formulae have disappeared. In the Liber Ordinum, for instance, the formula is of the nature of a benediction, and the Gelasian Sacramentary has the prayer Deus mundi conditor, not found elsewhere, but containing the remarkable "praise of the bee"—possibly a Vergilian reminiscence—which is found with more or less modification in all the texts of the Praeconium down to the present.

The regularity of the metrical cursus of the Exsultet would lead us to place the date of its composition perhaps as early as the fifth century, and not later than the seventh. The earliest manuscripts in which it appears are those of the three Gallican Sacramentaries: the Bobbio Missal (7th century), the Missale Gothicum and the Missale Gallicanum Vetus (both of the 8th century). The earliest manuscript of the Gregorian Sacramentary (Vat. Reg. 337) does not contain the Exsultet, but it was added in the supplement to what has been loosely called the Sacramentary of Adrian, and probably drawn up under the direction of Alcuin.

As it stands in the liturgy, it may be compared with two other forms, the blessing of palms on Palm Sunday, and the blessing of the baptismal font at the Easter Vigil. The order is, briefly:

In pre-1970 forms of the Roman Rite the deacon or, if there is no deacon, the priest himself, removes his violet vestments and wears a white or gold dalmatic for the entry into the church with the paschal candle and the singing or recitation of the Exsultet, resuming the violet vestments immediately afterwards. In the later form, white vestments are worn throughout. The affixing, in the pre-1955 form of the Roman Rite, of five grains of incense at the words incensi hujus sacrificium was removed in Pope Pius XII's revision.

The chant is usually an elaborate form of the well-known recitative of the Preface. In some uses, a long bravura was introduced upon the word accendit, to fill in the pause, which must otherwise occur while, in the pre-1955 form of the rite, the deacon is lighting the candle. In Italy, the Praeconium was sung from long strips of parchment, gradually unrolled as the deacon proceeded. These "Exsultet rolls" were decorated with illuminations as visual aids and with the portraits of contemporary reigning sovereigns, whose names were mentioned in the course of the Praeconium. The use of these rolls, as far as is known at present, was confined to Italy. The best examples date from the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Until 1955, the Exsultet ended with a long prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor: