and there was much rejoicing

[from the movie Monty Python and the HolyGrail.]

Acknowledgement of a notable accomplishment. Something long-awaited, widely desired, possibly unexpected but secretly wished-for, with a suggestion that something about the problem (and perhaps the steps necessary to make it go away) was deeply disturbing to hacker sensibilities.

In person, the phrase is almost invariably pronounced with the same portentious intonation as the movie. The customary in-person (approving) response is a weak and halfhearted “Yaaaay…”, with one index finger raised like a flag and moved in a small circle. The reason for this, like most of the Monty Python oeuvre, cannot easily be explained outside its original context.

Example: “changelog entry #436: with the foo driver brain damage taken care of, finally obsoleted BROKEN_EVIL_KLUDGE. Removed from source tree. (And there was much rejoicing).”