The Huron Carol

by

Sarah Macdonald

(Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral Girls' Choir)

The Huron Carol is Canada’s oldest Christmas song, probably written in 1642 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. The Christmas story is told using the imagery of the First Nations of Canada: the Christ-child is wrapped in rabbit skins and Chiefs bring gifts of Fox and Beaver-pelt (far more valuable in Canada than Gold, Frankincense, or Myrrh).