Christmas route

The keyword of these days is the "vertep". Now, in the eve of Christmas, in many cities and weights of Russia, and other Slavic countries, they show puppet performances with that name. Small figures on the wires are placed inside the Forest Box decorated by the Bethlehem star, which symbolizes the cave (in the old “vertep”), where Jesus Christ was born.

Says the Deputy Director of the Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Zhivov :

- Vertep is, of course, an old, common Slavic word. His one -rooted words are in other Slavic languages. This is the same root that is in the word "helicopter", that is, "garden". And one of its initial meanings is the meaning of the garden.

- Not a cave, but a garden?

- In general, a closed place, in particular, a cave. The word "cave" also appears quite early, it is in different Slavic languages. But the meaning of such a Christmas box or Christmas game, the Christmas performance, it acquires, of course, quite late.

- Just because the doll theater in Rus' arose late.

- That's right. Such a theater performance first appears among the Western Slavs, among the Poles, then in Ukraine, in Belarus. And only then it is transferred to Moscow Rus'.

The Christmas of Christ is played out - how the magi come, they bring gifts, the shepherds come, etc. They come to some kind of closed room. It often looks like a cave. And this is called a verteb

- And here the “vertep” exists in the meaning, of course, not the garden, but the cave, because the action related to Christmas Christ, which took place in the cave, is played out.

- Yes, sure.

- And, in addition, this word has a meaning that is more used in modern Russian. This is a route as a container of debauchery, in general something indecent. They say: "There was some kind of spark." Is this the meaning how formed?

- We do not even know this, since not so much the meaning was formed as what is called collocation, that is, a stable phrase - a route of some robbers. This combination appears quite early. We have quite early examples of such use. But, of course, this means “the cave in which the robbers live,” because the robbers, as a rule, live in some closed place, which is not visible to the simple eye.

- In a secret place.

- And this hidden place is indicated by the word "vertep". Since this place is hidden, it becomes a refuge for what needs to be hidden - for robbers, for libertines, etc. There are a lot of examples. They are in the XVIII century, and there are separate examples in earlier texts.

- And which of these meanings prevails in the church-Slavic language?

- The Church Slavonic language is a language with a long history. And at different stages of its development, different things are found. In the early texts, we find only the “cave” and “garden”. But the negative meaning appears, as I understand it, later. In the texts of the 15th century it is. Then it, of course, does not go anywhere.

- And when the Christmas church services are going on, I mean modern practice, is the route as a cave in which the baby was born is mentioned here?

- Certainly! But the Christmas Christmas is played there - how the magi come, they bring gifts, shepherds come, etc. They come to some kind of closed room. It often looks like a cave. And this is called a nativity scene. This is one of the names of the room in which the action is played. Other names are Bethlehem (in Ukraine) or some kind of “shop” in Polish. So, there are different words here. But the "Vertep" is also a very well -known word.

To the story of Viktor Zhivov, we add: even 15-20 years ago, the word "vertep" was not so famous. An old folk action was revived by folklorers and horn enthusiasts.