Huron Carol (Jesous Ahatonhia)

The “Huron Carol,” also known by its original Huron-language title Jesous Ahatonhia (“Jesus, He is born”), is recognized as the first Canadian Christmas hymn. It was written in 1642 by Jean de Brébeuf, a French Jesuit missionary who lived among the Huron-Wendat people in present-day Ontario. Brébeuf sought to present the story of Christ’s birth in a way that the Huron people could easily understand and connect with their own cultural imagery.

Instead of the traditional Bethlehem setting, the carol places the Nativity in the Huron world, describing the infant Christ born in a lodge of broken bark, wrapped in a robe of rabbit skin, and worshiped by hunters instead of shepherds. The gifts brought are simple tribal offerings rather than gold or frankincense, showing Christ’s accessibility to all cultures. This adaptation revealed Brébeuf’s missionary method: presenting the gospel message in terms familiar to the people he served.

The carol was originally composed in the Huron language, set to a French folk melody. Later, in the 19th century, English versions began to circulate, most famously translated by Jesse Edgar Middleton in 1926. His rendering, while poetic, departs somewhat from Brébeuf’s original text. Today, the “Huron Carol” is sung across Canada and beyond, both in English and in reconstructed Huron. It remains a deeply moving reminder of the universality of the gospel message and the missionary efforts to bring Christ’s story into every culture.