Christmas Across Native America

The introduction of Christianity to the Americas and the origins of Christmas can be controversial in Native circles. Europeans knowingly replaced Native people’s existing spiritual beliefs with the beliefs taught in the Bible. Cruelty and brutality often accompanied this indoctrination. Yet it is also true that some tribes, families, and individuals embraced the Bible and Jesus’ teachings voluntarily. This complicated history is reflected here.

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All throughout Indian Country, Native people have gathered in churches, missions, and temples to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ by singing carols and hymns in their Native languages. In some churches, the story of Jesus’ birth is recited in Native languages. Some Native churches also host nativity plays using Native settings and actors to re-enact the birth of Jesus Christ. Among Catholics, Christmas Eve Mass traditionally begins in Indian communities at midnight and extends into the early hours of Christmas Day. In tipis, hogans, and houses, Native American Church members also hold Christmas services, ceremonies that begin on Christmas Eve and go on all night until Christmas morning.

Music played an important part in converting Native people, establishing their practice of worship, and teaching them how to celebrate the Christmas season. Perhaps the earliest North American Christmas carol was written in the Wyandot language of the Huron-Wendat people. Jesous Ahatonhia (“Jesus, He is born”)—popularly known as Noël huron or the Huron Carol—is said by oral tradition to have been written in 1643 by the Jesuit priest Jean de Brébeuf.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2022/12/21/christmas-across-native-america/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20221222-daily-responsive&spMailingID=47793660&spUserID=NTkyNzY2ODg1MzgyS0&spJobID=2362605046&spReportId=MjM2MjYwNTA0NgS2