‘Twas in the moon of winter-time, when all the birds had fled. That mighty Gitchi Manitou, sent angel choirs instead. Before their light the stars grew dim, and wandering hunter heard the hymn: “Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.”
Those are the opening lines of what’s known as the Huron Carol, a much-loved song in Canada that is widely regarded as the first, if not the quintessential, Canadian Christmas carol.
In fact, those aren’t the carol’s original words, written in in the 17th century by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary among the Hurons (also known as the Wendat). They are the words of Canadian church choir director and poet Jesse Edgar Middleton, who wrote them in 1926.
Middleton’s words are less a translation of the original and more a complete remaking of the lyrics — they bear no relation to Brébeuf’s text and are, in fact, a heavily romanticized idea of Indigenous life springing form the imagination of a white Christian Canadian.
And now some are suggesting it may be time to ditch the carol due to that fact, and because of the church's terrible history of colonization and residential schools. Either that, or use the original lyrics or new ones written by an Indigenous person.
Read about it in my
latest Free Press column.
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