Ivan Mozzhukhin as the Devil in The Night Before Christmas, a 1913 silent movie adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's "Christmas Eve".
"Christmas Eve" (Russian: "Ночь перед Рождеством", Noch pered Rozhdestvom; also known in English as "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Night of Christmas Eve") is a short story by the Ukrainian-born Russian author Nikolai Gogol which contains elements of comedy, fantasy and romance. It was first published in 1832 in the second volume of Gogol's short story anthology Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.
The protagonist of the story is a young man named Vakula, a blacksmith and talented amateur artist whose mother, Solokha, is a witch who has many lovers. The Devil takes exception to an unflattering picture that Vakula has painted of him and decides to take his revenge on the young man by preventing him from seeing his sweetheart Oksana. However, Vakula outwits the Devil and forces him to help in winning Oksana's hand in marriage.
Adaptations of the story include the 1876 opera Vakula the Smith and the 1887 opera Cherevichki, both of which have music by Tchaikovsky, and the 1895 opera Christmas Eve with music by Rimsky-Korsakov. A silent movie adaptation was made in Russia in 1913. A second live action movie based on the story was made in the Soviet Union in 1961. There have been two animated adaptations of the story, the first one was made in the Soviet Union in 1951 and the second was made in Russia in 1997.
Plot[]
A witch on a broomstick from a 15th-century German manuscript.
The action begins in the Ukrainian village of Dikanka on the night before Christmas. The moon is shining brightly, the witch Solokha is flying through the sky and the Devil is abroad. It is the last night on which the Devil is free to make mischief before the start of the Christmas season and he is determined to take revenge on Vakula. Although Vakula is Solokha's son, he is very different from his mother. He is a regular church-goer, the village blacksmith and a gifted amateur painter. Vakula has recently painted a picture, on display in the church, in which the Devil appears and the Devil is angry about how ugly Vakula made him look.
To prevent Vakula from seeing Oksana, the young woman that he loves, the Devil decides to make her father, the Cossack Choub, stay at home. Vakula and Choub do not get on well and the Devil knows that the young man will never enter Oksana's house while her father is there. Choub has been invited to a party at the home of the village sexton but the Devil believes that Choub will not go out if the night is too dark. For that reason, the Devil steals the moon and puts it in his satchel. When Choub, accompanied by his friend Panas, steps out of his house, he is surprised to see that the moon has suddenly gone but decides to go to the party anyway. Knowing that Choub has gone out, Vakula goes to visit Oksana. Determined to make Choub turn back, the Devil starts a snowstorm, in which Choub and Panas get lost. The two separate in an attempt to find the road again. Panas finds his way to a tavern and Choub finds his way back to his own house. However, when he sees Vakula at the door, Choub decides that the building cannot be his house after all. Choub decides to visit his lover Solokha instead, safe in the knowledge that her son Vakula is not at home.
Oksana tells Vakula that she will not marry him unless he can bring her the shoes that the Czarina herself wears. Unhappy at the seemingly impossible task that he has to carry out in order to become Oksana's husband, Vakula returns home.
Carving of the Devil on a building in Stonegate, York, England.
The Devil enters Solokha's house through the chimney. As he does so, the moon escapes from his satchel, returns to the sky and the snowstorm stops. In quick succession, three of Solokha's lovers, the mayor, the sexton and Choub arrive. When the mayor arrives, Solokha makes the Devil hide in a small sack. When the sexton arrives, the mayor is told to hide in a much larger sack. When Choub arrives, the sexton is told to hide in a second large sack. When Vakula returns home, Choub is told to hide in the same sack which already contains the sexton, although he has no idea that he is sharing a sack with another man and thinks that there is an animal with him. Vakula carries the sacks outside. He is surprised that he finds them so heavy and decides that it must be because he feels weak after losing Oksana's love.
Oksana passes by and once again taunts Vakula by asking him to fetch the Czarina's shoes. Vakula decides that the only way to win Oksana's love is to fetch the imperial shoes, which would require the Devil's help to accomplish. Leaving the two large sacks in the street and still carrying the small sack on his back, Vakula goes to see the local shaman Puzaty Patsyuk. The two large sacks are later carried away by other villagers. The men are eventually freed and realize that Solokha had made fools of them.
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Czarina Catherine the Great in her coronation robe. Painted between 1778 and 1779 by Vigilius Eriksen.
Vakula asks Puzaty Patsyuk how to find the Devil but the shaman replies that the Devil is already on the young man's back. The Devil emerges from the sack which Vakula is carrying but Vakula takes the demon by surprise, grabs him by his tail and threatens to make the sign of the cross on his back. The Devil is completely at the mercy of Vakula and has to do whatever he says. The young man orders the Devil to carry him to Saint Petersburg at once. On arrival in the city, Vakula seeks out some Cossacks he knows who had previously visited Dikanka. The Devil persuades the Cossacks to allow Vakula to join them when they have an audience with the Czarina that evening. When he sees the Czarina, Vakula immediately begins to praise her beautiful shoes. The Czarina is amused by this and does not hesitate to give the young man a pair of her shoes as a gift. The Devil carries Vakula back to Dikanka. The young man beats the fiend before finally allowing him to go.
A rumor has spread around Dikanka that Vakula has killed himself. When Oksana sees him again, she is so happy to find him alive that she agrees to marry him even before she sees the Czarina's shoes.
See also[]
- Video of The Night Before Christmas, the 1913 silent movie based on Gogol's "Christmas Eve", with intertitles in Russian and English
- Video of the 1951 Soviet animated film adaptation of the story (in Russian without subtitles)