Fitting home for Huron Carole

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This article was published 03/12/2016 (3532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It only took 375 years for the Huron Carole to come full circle.

Next week, the River Heights church named after Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf hosts Tom Jackson’s concert named after the hymn Brebeuf wrote in 1641.

“Brebeuf wanted to teach (the Huron people) about Christmas and he wanted to do it in their language and pass on the faith respectfully,” says Rev. Mark Tarrant of St. John Brebeuf Roman Catholic Church.

“He loved the people he was with.”

Jackson performs that haunting song and others at the Huron Carole concert, which takes place Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at St. John Brebeuf Church.

The touring variety show, which hits 17 venues across Canada, includes performances by singer, actress and TV host Beverley Mahood, singer/percussionist Shannon Gaye, and jazz pianist Kristian Alexandrov, and an after-concert reception.

The Huron Carole plays Brandon’s Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium on Tues., Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

This annual fundraiser for Winnipeg Harvest seemed like a natural fit for the St. John Brebeuf parish, the 700 families of which are generous supporters of the food bank and other community agencies, and are co-sponsoring a Syrian family of five.

“I’ve been fascinated by the idea of the Huron Carole in general and it goes back to our patron saint,” says Tarrant of Brebeuf, a French missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Huron, located near what is now Midland, Ont.

“We’re opening our doors to everyone who wants to hear Tom Jackson’s music.”

The former Winnipegger recalls learning the song as a teenager for a Christmas special produced at CKY-TV’s studios at Polo Park.

“I didn’t know the song, but I fibbed my way in with the producer,” Jackson recalls in a telephone interview about his introduction to what is now the headline song for his annual fundraising concert series.

“From that point on, it became an integral part of my life and it’s become an integral part of other people’s lives.”

Originally titled Jesous Ahatonhia, (Jesus, he is born) the song is also credited as being Canada’s first Christmas carol, originally written in the Huron/Wendat language and set to a French folk tune. Jackson performs the English version penned by Jesse Edgar Middleton in 1926, based on images and ideas in Brebeuf’s original text.

Tarrant looks forward to hearing Jackson’s bass baritone version of Brebeuf’s hymn, also performed annually by the parish choirs.

“It just breaks you,” he says about hearing the carol in the church’s circular auditorium, which seats 450 on curved wooden pews.

“I’m standing in the building named after the man and I’m listening to the choir singing his song.”

Elevated to sainthood in 1930 along with seven other martyred Jesuit missionaries, Brebeuf was declared a patron saint of Canada in 1940.

More than a Christmas hymn, the Huron Carole is a piece of art that transports listeners to another moment, says Jackson, known for his 16 albums and television roles in North of 60, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Law and Order.

“Certain songs take you to a place,” says the Canadian Red Cross ambassador and philanthropist, who has raised $250 million in cash and food for food banks and social agencies over the past 30 years.

“The Huron Carole strikes a particular chord.”

Jackson promises the evening will live up to its tagline of ‘defeating hunger, feeding the soul’ with an evening of performances designed to inspire generosity and caring for others.

The need for generosity never ends, with more than 62,000 Manitobans using a food bank each month and 29 per cent of the province’s children living in poverty, says David Northcott of Winnipeg Harvest.

“We want to work together and care for another and feed each other,” says Northcott, who distributes concert tickets to the food bank’s clients.

“Let’s not celebrate poverty. Let’s celebrate caring for one another.”

brenda@suderman.com

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