Without ‘Zhyd,’ Vertep tells story of Jesus Christ’s birth
A European Christmas is hard to imagine without nativity plays.
Ukraine has a theatrical holiday tradition of its own, called Vertep. And just like nativity plays, it has a range of traditional characters.
But, unlike the cast in nativity plays, the local one is about to evolve.
Vertep, which in Ukrainian means “cave,” refers to where Jesus was born. The plays were originally designed to inform people on Christmas Eve that the savior is here. It started off as a puppet theater, but eventually split up into two genres a few centuries ago, including a full-scale dramatic performance.
Red-cheeked and bright-eyed, people dress up as angels, kings and devil, and trot on crispy snow, knocking on people’s doors, carrying a long staff topped with a star. Vertep is still performed by young people, particularly students and young members of religious organizations.
Both Vertep and the nativity play are loosely based on the story of the birth of Jesus from the New Testament. Vertep enacts the part of Chapter 2 in Matthew where Herod, the king of Judea, finds out that the Messiah was born, and sends his soldiers to kill off all babies under two years old.
But all is well that ends well: after a series of acts, good triumphs over evil, the devil takes Herod to hell and angels celebrate the birth of Christ.
Apart from the obvious characters like Herod, Vertep usually features characters like Death and the Jew. It is the character of Jew that is about to transform.
Called Zhyd in 19th-century Ukrainian, he appears alongside Herod, helping him collect information, fearing punishment if he does not perform his evil act. He was a reflection of an archaic social stereotype.
“It happened that Jews were mostly the ones who owned pubs in Ukraine in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along with the alcohol business they used to lend money,” explains Andriy Nagirnyak, a Catholic priest. “Zhyd appeared in Vertep as people in the villages felt threatened by these characters. Getting people drunk and financial abuse was a side effect of their job.”
Nagirnyak says the current image of the Jew in Vertep is “a portrait of an imaginary enemy,” who Ukrainians can blame for every disaster in their lives.
This year, the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv recommended on Dec. 2 that students performing Vertep should leave the Jew out of the story altogether. The university is an influential partner organization of the Greek Catholic Church, which has five million followers in Ukraine.
“Modern-day evil has many and universal faces. To narrow it down to the traditional evil triad in Vertep (Herod-Death-Zhyd), especially to the archaic figure of Zhyd, would mean that we, like the color blind, fail to see many colors of our world,” said a letter signed by university president Borys Gudziak, and his deputies Yuriy Shchurko and Myroslav Marynovych.
“We suggest the UCU community, especially the students, reconsider the genesis of evil and reveal the true root of our social, national and political disasters, and to tell people about it through Vertep’s humor and satire.”
Apart from upgrading the image of evil, the recommendation is intended to make a subtle move toward the Jewish-Ukrainian dialogue, to compensate for a rocky relationship the two ethnic groups have had in Ukraine for centuries.
Shchurko of UCU says Jews, expelled from their homelands, historically in Ukraine took up commerce and other activities that would not tie them too much to a particular place, and could take off and leave elsewhere if their luck turned.
“They were living in fear and were always accepted improperly,” he said.
He hopes that UCU students, when preparing their Vertep this year, have a better understanding of why it is important to rethink the Zhyd character.
But Andriy Levytsky, head of the UCU student’s fraternity, says he was outraged by the recommendation.
“I think that Zhyd in Vertep isn’t the symbol of mocking the whole Jews’ culture,” he says. “This character is typical for Ukrainians, he appeared historically.”
When students finally decided to cut Zhyd out of the scenario, they inevitably came across the dilemma of who is going to replace the traditional character.
“We chose a gypsy at first, but then thought that if we can’t take Zhyd, it would be weird to choose a gypsy,” smiles Levytsky. “So we left the character without any changes, and called it Agent.”
Asked who he would recommend as a modern-day embodiment of evil, to replace Zhyd, Father Nagirnyak said twisted society gives us plenty of suitable substitutes. He said corrupt police officers and judges are some cases in point, deserving plenty of satire.
“A judge who goes around caroling is a Ukrainian character, right?” he says with a smile. The “carol-singing judge” usually refers to the case of Ihor Zvarych, a former judge of Court of Appeals in Lviv, who was caught red-handed taking a $20,000 bribe, but said it was a gift for singing carols.
“His behavior recalls that 19th century Zhyd. If we pick this type of a character, it would be clear we don’t blame any nationality or even profession, but an individual feature,” says the priest. “We need to learn to laugh at ourselves. We will lose our identity if we are too polite and politically correct.”
Alyona ZHUK
