Our 2021 Christmas blog post looked at the Ukrainian vertep, a centuries-old tradition of telling the Christmas story through puppet theatre.  This very brief post looks at two 2022 books received this year about Christmas in Ukraine, including one about vertep.

Rizdvo ta Malanka [Christmas and Malanka] edited by I︠E︡vhenii︠a︡ Sapoz︠h︡nykova

• This book is printed in two halves, one for each subject, with each end of the volume having a distinctive cover.  Based on fieldwork undertaken in 2021 and 2022, the book looks at Ukrainian customs relating to Christmas and Malanka, the latter a winter tradition involving house-to-house visiting in costumes, not a million miles away from mummering.

Rizdvi︠a︡nyĭ vertep : shli︠a︡khy istorychnoï transformat︠s︡iï [The Christmas vertep : paths of historical transformation] by O.V. Kurochkin.

• A look at the history and practice of the vertep Christmas play.

The UL’s legal deposit copy of another 2022 title that would fit here, A Ukrainian Christmas by Yaroslav Hrytsak and Nadiyka Gerbish, was deposited electronically, so readers will need to wait for the return of non-print legal deposit following the British Library cyber-attack.

Once more, best wishes from us all for a peaceful Christmas and holiday.

Mel Bach