 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Vertep" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
InUkrainian culture,vertep (вертеп, fromChurch Slavonic:вєртє́пъ[ʋerˈtep],lit. 'cave'code: chu promoted to code: cu) is a portablepuppet theatre anddrama, which presents thenativity scene, othermystery plays, as well as secular plots withsatirical and comical elements. The original meaning of the word is "secret place", "cave", "den", referring to the cave whereChrist was born, i.e., theBethlehem Cave. Vertep first appeared in the first half of the 17th century under the influence of Western European traditions, which spread to Ukrainian lands, then part of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (seeszopka), and became popular in theUkrainian Cossack Hetmanate, which would eventually become aprotectorate of theRussian Empire.
The Ukrainian vertep, or puppet theatre, first appeared in the latter half of the 16th century - beginning of the 17th century and was an adoption of popularWestern Europeanmystery plays. It is believed that it was introduced by students of theKyiv-Mohyla Academy.[1] The vertep puppet theatre was made familiar to Ukrainian rural communities by wanderingdeacons and students of the above-mentioned Academy, whose role could be compared to medievalgoliards.[2] The theatre had numerous regional variants, the most notable being created inSokyryntsi,Baturyn andMezhyhirya.[3]
With time, production of verteps was adopted by urban and rural inhabitants and became a part of Ukrainian popular culture. Among others, a song from traditional vertep performance was included into the playNatalka Poltavka byIvan Kotliarevsky.[4]
After theRussian Revolution of 1917, theatheisticSoviet state severely persecutedreligion and the associated elements of culture, and by 1930s the tradition of Christmasverteps was virtually eliminated, except in the lands ofWestern Ukraine.[5]
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
A typical vertep was a wooden box, one or two storeyed. The floors had slots through which the puppeteers controlled wooden puppets. The performance was divided into two separate sections: sacred and secular, with the former taking the form of a tragedy, and the latter - a comedy. The upper floor of the two-storeyed box was used for the nativity scene, while the lower was for interludes and othermystery plays (most often featuring theHerod andRachel plots) and secular plays, often ofcomedy character.[3]
The sacred act was based on theNativity scene with interludes, while the secular was based on day-to-day life often lampooning the various national traits of the local population with characters such as the Kozak (Ukrainian/Cossack), Liakh (Pole), Moskal (Muscovite), Zhyd (Jew), Tsyhan (Gypsy).[citation needed] Each was accompanied by representative dance music (Kozachok,Krakowiak,Kamarinskaya, etc.) ReligiousChristmas carols were also sung, often in harmony.[citation needed] Some verteps told of thedestruction of the Zaporozhian Sich.[3] Unlike real-life and allegorical personalities, religious figures such asJesus Christ andVirgin Mary were never included in vertep performances.[6]
In some regions, for exampleGalicia, people in villages would dress as vertep characters and go from house to house, acting out nativity plays during Christmas holidays.[7] This form, following the old tradition ofMalanka, is quite popular in WesternUkraine.[citation needed]
Vertep in Ukraine also became heavily intertwined with singing of theUkrainian Carols (koliadky).[citation needed]
| People |
| .jpg) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | ||||||||
| Gifts of the Magi | ||||||||
| Narratives |
| |||||||
| Related | ||||||||
| In culture | ||||||||
| Remembrances | ||||||||
