An Indian Christmas carol

Collect ’round, pals, and hear the story of Canada’s oldest Christmas carol.

The lyrics had been written in Wyandot, the language of the Huron Indians... a language now dead except amongst the scholars who study it.

And but this 365-year-old hymn is nonetheless widely sung in Canada - in French and English.

The song is identified by various names: “The Huron Carol,” “Noël Huron,” “’Twas Inside the Moon of Wintertime,” “Indian Christmas Carol.”

Its original Wyandot title is “Jesous Ahatonhia” (“Jesus, He Is Born”).

You may wonder: “Why would 17th-century Huron Indians sing a song about Jesus? Had been they Christians? And what’s this about ‘the lyrics had been written’? Did the Hurons have a written language?”

The answer to this riddle rests inside the story of Jean de Brébeuf.

He was a French Jesuit priest who traveled to “New France” (Canada) in 1625 to convert the natives to Christianity. In 1626, Brébeuf went to live amongst the Huron tribes of the Wonderful Lakes region.

He learned to speak their language.

Referred to as back to France in 1629, Brébeuf returned to Huron country 5 years later having a couple of associates, determined to continue his missionary perform.

Factors didn't go smoothly. It wasn’t till 1637 that Father Brébeuf created his 1st convert. But by 1647, thousands of Indians had accepted baptism into the Catholic faith.

Meanwhile, Brébeuf wrote extensively concerning the culture of the Hurons. It was he who gave the name “lacrosse” towards the regular Amerindian field sport. Brébeuf also developed the Wyandot language into a written form.

And so this gutsy French priest wrote “Jesous Ahatonhia” about 1642 - working with his own literation - and taught the song towards the Indians.

If you’d like to hear it, click here. Canadian folksinger Alan Mills recorded “The Huron Christmas Carol” in 1960, singing the initial verse in Wyandot, repeating it in French, then singing the entire song in English.

POSTSCRIPT: The story ended pretty badly for Father Brébeuf... along with the Huron Indians. Iroquois attackers from the south laid waste to Huron villages in 1649, ultimately displacing the whole Huron nation. Brébeuf and a different priest had been captured, tortured and killed.

The invading Iroquois possessed an ironic benefit. They’d acquired muskets from the Dutch, who supplied them in exchange for furs. France also supplied guns towards the Hurons for their defense... but the Jesuit priests insisted that only Christian Indians get guns.

With half of the Hurons Christianized plus the other half nonetheless “heathen,” the Huron tribes had been outgunned by the Iroquois 4 to 1.

The Catholic Church canonized Brébeuf (as well as other “North American Martyrs”) in 1930. St. Jean de Brébeuf, Apostle towards the Hurons, is now the patron saint of Canada.