"We Gather Together" is a Christian hymn of Dutch origin written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius as "Wilt heden nu treden" to celebrate the Dutch victory over Spanish forces in the Battle of Turnhout. It was originally set to a Dutch folk tune. In the United States, it is popularly associated with Thanksgiving Day and is often sung at family meals and at religious services on that day.
At the time the hymn was written, the Dutch were engaged in a war of national liberation against the Catholic King Philip II of Spain. , "We gather together" resonated because under the Spanish King, Dutch Protestants were forbidden to gather for worship. The hymn first appeared in print in a 1626 collection of Dutch folk and patriotic songs, by Adriaen Valerius.
In anglophone hymnology, the tune is known as "Kremser", from Eduard Kremser's 1877 score arrangement and lyric translation of into Latin and German. The modern English text was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.
According to the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, "We Gather Together" first appearance in an American hymnal was in 1903. It had retained popularity among the Dutch, and when the Dutch Reformed Church in North America decided in 1937 to abandon the policy that they had brought with them to the New World in the 17th century of singing only psalms and add hymns to the church service, "We Gather Together" was chosen as the first hymn in the first hymnal.
A different translation under the first line We Praise Thee, O God, Our Redeemer, Creator was translated by J. B. C. Cory (1882âÂÂ1963).
The hymn steadily gained popularity, especially in services of Thanksgiving on such occasions as town and college centennial celebrations. According to Carl Daw, executive director of the Hymn Society, the "big break" came in 1935 when it was included in the national hymnal of the Methodist-Episcopal Church.
According to Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, "by World War I, we started to see ourselves in this hymn", and the popularity increased during World War II, when "the wicked oppressing" were understood to include Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
This hymn is often sung at American churches the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
This hymn was sung at the Opening of the Funeral Mass for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The West Wing episode "Shibboleth" (season 2, episode 8) alluded to the hymn, and it is played in the episode's final scene (performed by the Cedarmont Kids).
The hymn is also usually sung by the Quartermaine family on the American soap opera General Hospital annual Thanksgiving episode.
Note that the English lyrics do not translate the Dutch. The Dutch third stanza is in the republishing 1871 only in the footnote on page 41, not in the sheet, because it was not good enough. Therefore, it is not in all lyrics.
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As Sung in the Congregational Church in Connecticut in the 1950s:
Verse 3
We all do extol thee our leader in Battle And pray that thou still our defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation. Thy name be ever praised, and thy people be free.