Chad Gadya and Some Alternate Songs
Chad Gadya (an Only Kid)
People: (singing* or recited sequentially around the table with Chad Gadya as a chorus at the end of each stanza):
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came a cat and chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came a dog and bit the cat
That chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came a stick and hit the dog
That bit the cat
That chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came the fire and burned the stick
That hit the dog
That bit the cat
That chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came an ox and drank the water
That quenched the fire
That burned the stick
That hit the dog
That bit the cat
That chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came the shochet (butcher) and slaughtered the ox
That drank the water
That quenched the fire
That burned the stick
That hit the dog
That bit the cat
That chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came the LORD and He brought peace
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
Then came the water and quenched the fire
That burned the stick
That hit the dog
That bit the cat
That chased the Kid
My father bought for two zuzim
Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya
*How to sing Chad Gadya: https://youtu.be/iaZuI-WZTe8
An Only Kid with two zuzim from The Rose Haggadah by Barbara Wolff
Wikipedia notes that Chad Gadya is the most recent addition to the traditional Haggadah, having been added in 1590, and is open to interpretation. According to some modern Jewish commentators, what appears to be a light-hearted song may be symbolic. One interpretation is that Chad Gadya is about the different nations that have conquered the Land of Israel: The kid symbolizes the Jewish people; the cat, Assyria; the dog, Babylon; the stick, Persia; the fire, Macedonia; the water, Roman Empire; the ox, the Saracens; the slaughterer, the Crusaders; the angel of death, the Turks. At the end, God returns to send the Jews back to Israel.