Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 6, 2023 is: seder \SAY-der\ noun

A seder (often capitalized as Seder) is a service held in a Jewish home or community that includes a ceremonial dinner and that is held on the first evening, or first and second evenings, of [Passover](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Passover) in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt.

// Ari enjoys the stories, songs, and rituals that accompany dinner on the night of the seder.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seder)

Examples:

“For years, I kept my disdain for [brisket](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brisket) to myself for fear of committing Jewish culinary treason. Eventually, I needed to know what all the fuss was about—and to feed a crowd for the first Passover seder that I was hosting. So I pulled out some Jewish cookbooks and decided on Joan Nathan’s recipe for Moroccan-style brisket from her book ‘Jewish Cooking in America.’ … It was a hit and delicious in a way that I had no idea brisket could be.” — Julie Giuffrida, The Los Angeles Times, 17 Dec. 2022

Did you know?

Order and ritual are very important in the seder—so important that they are even reflected in its name: the English word seder is a [transliteration](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transliteration) of the Hebrew word sēdher, meaning “order.” The courses in the meal, as well as blessings, prayers, stories, and songs, are recorded in the [Haggadah](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Haggada-biblical-Exodus), a book that lays out the order of the [Passover](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Passover) feast and recounts the story of [Exodus](https://www.britannica.com/event/Exodus-Old-Testament). Each food consumed as part of the seder recalls an aspect of the Israelites’ 13th century BCE exodus from Egypt. For instance, [matzo](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/matzo) (unleavened bread) represents the haste with which the Israelites fled; [maror](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maror) (a mix of bitter herbs) recalls the bitterness of enslaved life; and a mixture of fruits and nuts called [charoset](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haroseth) (also rendered as charoses or haroset/haroses) symbolizes the clay or mortar the Israelites worked with during their Egyptian enslavement.