Why Is This Night Different?

Representative Text

“Why is this night different from all of the others?”
This night we remember how God set us free.
This night we remember our fathers and mothers
Whom God reached out to save from harsh slavery.

We eat bitter herbs to recall how they suffered;
The salt water tells of their tears and their cries.
The lamb is the sacrifice each household offered;
The matzo is the bread with no time to rise.

Haroseth reminds how the people long labored
In making the mortar; what weary, worn slaves!
And yet in its sweetness is hope ever-savored,
And in each cup of wine, the promise: God saves!

Through symbols we share here, your story is spoken;
God, help us to know that it’s our story, too!
For as we are saved we are sent to the broken,
Till all know peace and joy, till all are made new.



Source: Songs of Grace: new hymns for God and neighbor #6

Author: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has been a pastor in rural, small town, suburban, and city churches; she has also served as a hospice chaplain, a hospital chaplain, and a school bus aide helping children with special needs. She and her husband Bruce are pastors of the First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, NY. Carolyn is a gifted hymn writer who has written over 400 hymns. These hymns have been sung by congregations throughout the United States and around the world — from the Washington National Cathedral to St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland to St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa to small town churches and small household congregations; they have also been sung at national church and international ecumenical meetin… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: "Why is this night different from all of the others?"
Title: Why Is This Night Different?
Original Language: English
Author: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (2000)
Meter: 12.11.12.11
Language: English
Publication Date: 2000
Copyright: Copyright © 2000 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved

Tune

KREMSER

The tune KREMSER owes its origin to a sixteenth-century Dutch folk song "Ey, wilder den wilt." Later the tune was combined with the Dutch patriotic hymn 'Wilt heden nu treden" in Adrianus Valerius's Nederlandtsch Gedenckclanck [sic: Nederlandtsche Gedenckclank] published posthumously in 1626. 'Wilt…

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Instances

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Text

Songs of Grace #6

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