The Huron Carol (‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime)

Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols

The Huron Carol may not be especially well-known by Americans, but in Canada, this song is a national treasure! It has been performed by some of Canada’s biggest recording artists, from Sarah McLachlan to Toronto Children’s Chorus. For decades now, Indigenous actor and singer, Tom Jackson, has performed a Christmas benefit concert in the carol’s name.

But, beloved as this carol may be, it also comes with painful historical baggage. It was written by St. Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary and martyr who lived with the Wendat people and immersed himself in their language, culture and spirituality. It is out of this experience that Canada’s Christmas carol was born.

Since the mid 17th century, when Brebeuf first penned the song in Wendat, the Huron Carol has been translated and reinterpreted several times over. “Twas in the Moon of Wintertime,” is the most popular version of the carol today, but its English lyrics bears little resemblance to the original and distorts Wendat culture.

To help us unpack this Christmas carol, with a history complicated by centuries of colonialism, we speak with three Canadians: Geneviève Salamone, an Indigenous violinist and activist; John Steckley, one of the foremost scholars of the Wendat language; and the Rev. Michael Knox, S.J., the director of Martyr’s Shrine in Midland, Ontario.

Special thanks to Geneviève Salamone for recording The Huron Carol especially for this show, and to Aidan Baker and Broken Spine Productions, Cynthia Boener, Lief Sjostrom, Don Ross, Debra Buesking, Keith Michael Roman, Brian Thiessen and Dana Lynn Seaborn, and Heather Dale for providing much of the music on this episode.

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