Huron Carol

SATB Choir and Organ. A delicious setting of the oldest carol in the Americas. The Huron Carol (or "Twas in the Moon of Wintertime") is a Canadian Christmas Hymn (Canada's oldest Christmas song), written probably in 1642 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat pople. The song's melody is based on a traditional French Folk song. The English version of the hymn uses imagery familiar in the early 20th century, in place of the traditional Nativity story. This version is derived from Brébeuf's original song and Huron religious concepts. In the English version, Jesus is born in a "lodge of broken bark", and wrapped in a "robe of rabbit skin". He is surrounded by hunters instead of shepherds and the Magi are portrayed as "chiefs from afar" that bring him "fox and beaver pelts" instead of the more familiar gifts. The hymn also uses a traditional Algonquin name, Gitchi Manitou, for God. C'mon now — how can you NOT sing a Christmas carol that has Gitchi Manitou in it?