Kevin Flatt is associate professor of history
and director of research at Redeemer
University College in Ancaster, Ont. Read more at
www.FaithToday.ca/HistoryLesson.
Advent is a season of both light and darkness. As the nights grow long and cold, some Christians
light candles in anticipation of the
coming of the Christ child.
The opening words of the common English version of the “Huron
Carol” – ’ Twas in the moon of wintertime, when all the birds had fled /
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent
angel choirs instead, hints at this
interplay of light and darkness.
The carol takes its name from the
Huron or Wendat people, an indigenous farming people who lived
in villages between Georgian Bay
and Lake Simcoe in the 17th century.
When the French began to settle
along the St. Lawrence River, the
curious Huron established contact
with them. The Huron and French
soon developed an alliance centred
on the fur trade and co-operation
against common enemies, like the
Iroquois or Haudenosaunee south
of Lake Ontario, longtime rivals of
the Huron.
The Jesuits, a disciplined Catholic religious order, came to North
America not to buy furs or make
military alliances but to spread
Christianity. They sent their first
missionaries to the Huron in 1627
under the protection of the French
authorities.
As 17th-century Catholics their
understanding of the gospel differed in some ways from an evangelical one, but they had a strong
desire to share the Christian message as they understood it.
Most of the Huron thought the
serious, black-robed Jesuits were
strange and so they took little inter-
est in their teachings. When diseases
like smallpox, unwittingly carried by
the Europeans, swept through the
community, the missionaries were
accused of being sorcerers who
spread sickness. Some wanted to
expel or kill the Jesuits, but held back
because they did not want to en-
danger the alliance with the French.
The Huron, like other First
Nations of the Great Lakes region,
appreciated music, which carried
great spiritual significance. The Jes-
uits understood the power of music
to bridge cultural divides, and tended
to choose men with musical ability
for missionary work. They wrote
songs in the Huron language, often
using existing melodies, to com-
municate the Christian message.
One of these songs was the original “Huron Carol,” probably
composed around 1642 by the
missionary Jean de Brébeuf. While
the melody came from a common
French folk song, the words were
Huron, including the refrain Jesous
ahatonhia, meaning “Jesus is born!”
The original lyrics, as translated by
John Steckley, were:
You human beings,
Take heart, Jesus is born!
The spirit who enslaved us
has departed;
Do not listen to him, for he
corrupts our minds.
Jesus, he is born!
Some Huron received this message and gradually a small Christian
community developed. The most
important Huron village, Ossoss-ané, even became predominantly
Christian by 1648.
Were the Jesuits merely a tool of
French colonialism? The presence of
French colonial power made it pos-
sible for them to carry out their
mission. But historian Bruce Trigger
argues the Jesuits hoped Huronia
would be an independent state, both
Huron and Christian, an ally of
France, but free from French control.
It was not to be. In 1649 the Iro-
quois, with help from disgruntled
Huron allies, attacked the Huron
homeland. The old enmity between
the two peoples, exacerbated by
European weapons and colonial
rivalries, erupted in a cataclysm of
violence. Weakened by the new
diseases, and unable to match the
large numbers of European guns
wielded by the Iroquois, the Hurons
were killed, captured or dispersed.
Two Jesuits, including Father
Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, were
taken prisoner, tortured and brutal-
ly murdered. Huronia was no more.
Later, a small group of Huron
survivors eventually made their
way to the Quebec City area. They
took the “Huron Carol” with them,
and taught it to their children, who
taught it to their children. More
than a century later, it was written
down and then translated into
French.
The familiar and haunting English version was written in 1926 by
J. E. Middleton, though his lyrics do
not closely follow the original words.
As an alternative a beautiful version
by Canadian musician Heather Dale
combines accurate Huron, French
and English lyrics – well worth a
listen this Advent season.
There is great darkness in the
story of the “Huron Carol” – greed,
violence, power, politics, martyrdom. In fact, it is like the story of
fallen humanity in general.
But the gospel reminds us, “The
light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it” (John
1: 5, ESV). In the words of the carol
itself, Take heart, Jesus is born! /FT
The Jesuits…
wrote songs
in the Huron
language,
often using
existing
melodies, to
communicate the
Christian
message.
15
PERCENTAGE OF THE
HURON WHO HAD
BECOME CHRISTIANS
BY 1648
“THE FRENCH PRESENCE
IN HURONIA,” CANADIAN
HISTORICAL REVIE W 49
(1968) B Y BRUCE TRIGGER
HISTORY LESSON
KEVIN FLATT
The “Huron Carol”
The beloved song has a complicated history