Wikipedia
Vertep ( Cyrillic: Вертеп, Батлейка) is a portable puppet theatre and drama predominantly in Ukraine, which presents the nativity scene, other mystery plays, and later secular plots as well. The original meaning of the word is "secret place", "cave", "den", referring to the cave where Christ was born, i.e., the Bethlehem Cave "Вифлеемский вертеп" in the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. To Russia vertep arrived in the 17th century after acquisition of the Cossack Hetmanate from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1654), where it was known as szopka.
In Belarusian culture it was also referred to as Batleika , from " Bethlehem".
Vertepi were also known in both Croatian and Serbian folk culture, notably in the districts of Syrmia and Kolubara.
A typical vertep was a wooden box, one or two storeyed. The floors had slots through which the puppeteers controlled wooden puppets. The upper floor of the two-storeyed box was used for the nativity scene, while the lower was for interludes and other mystery plays (most often featuring the Herod and Rachel plots) and secular plays, often of comedy character.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the atheistic Soviet state severely persecuted religion and the associated elements of culture, and by 1930s the tradition of Christmas verteps was virtually eliminated. The word itself survived in the meanings of "robber's den" and "the den of depravity".
The Vertep is a Serbian Orthodox Christmas custom commonly practiced in Ukraine by the young male members of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is usually performed on January 6, the Christmas Eve of the Orthodox calendar. This custom is called vertep, and the participants in it – vertepaši. Similarly to koledari, vertepaši are armed with wooden swords and fence with each other in front of houses.
Dressed in costumes, the groups perform a depiction of the birth of Jesus Christ and the days after it in front of an audience.
The word “vertep” comes from the Church Slavonic вєртє́пъ translates to the word “cave”, which refers to the birthplace of Jesus. It is also related to the word “verotysia”, which means “to whirl”, referring to the dance that the young men perform during the celebration.