Christmas and Revolution

Abstract

The discourse of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) abundantly adopted religious themes. In my article, I show how the theme of Christmas, with its specific images and vocabulary, has been used in the rhetoric of the participants of the Revolution. In three sections, I demonstrate the three lines in which the protesters, speakers, and commenters drew parallels between the course of the Revolution and the Nativity story. These lines are the birth of Christ, the persecutions of Herod, and the Bethlehem infanticide. Finally, I show how the protesters killed at the end of the Revolution are represented in the post-Maidan discourse as national saints. I devote special attention to the Christmas play called Vertep, performed on the Maidan scene in the winter of 2013–2014, because it most fully embraces the link between these lines and the Revolution. The results of the study are intended to contribute to a better understanding of both phenomena: the Revolution of Dignity as an event, influenced by religion, and the Ukrainian Christmas tradition as a flexible and ever-renewable source for the conceptualization of social reality.