Puppet of Virgin Mary, from Sokirinci vertep

The oldest vertep, in the museum`s collection, is Sokirinci, or Galagan’s vertep. He belonged to the family of Galagan’s landowners (descendants of Cossack officers). The puppets, chest, as well as the lyrics and the sheet music, were brought by the Kyivan bursaks to the landlord Galagan’s manor in the village of Socirinci in the Poltava region (now Chernihiv region) in 1770. The chest is made of wood, as a model of a two-store house. A puppeteer used special rods to move the puppets along the slots in the floors of the house. Galagan’s vertep includes 36 puppets. Vertep consisted of 2 acts. In fact, the first act, performed on the first floor, was a nativity play, featuring Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus, the Magi, shepherds and angels. Except for porcelain Virgin Mary, the puppets were made of wood. The Virgin Mary was made later than other puppets of the Sokyrynci vertep.