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Ukrainian Nativity Scenes: Folk Art, Faith & Heirloom Quality Handcrafted triptychs, carved figures, and painted folk-art nativities brought to you from our curated Ukrainian collection. Side by side: Ukrainian Wooden Nativity Icon Art in Dark Wood and White. Origins & the Vertep Tradition Many Ukrainian nativity scenes are descended from the vertep tradition - a mobile puppet theater presentation of the nativity. The earliest instances of the vertep tradition are from ther m …

Ukraine has a rich history of Christmas traditions, with the Vertep tradition of the nativity play being among the most important.Vertep is the Ukrainian tradition of the nativity story presented using a puppet theater. The Ukrainian word Vertep is rooted in the Old Slavonic word for cave.The vertep (nativity) is traditionally housed in a shopka (from the Polish for box) and travels from house to house within a village. The performance of the Vertep would take place with carols, and the sec …