This story is included in the series of stories “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka”, recorded and retold by the hospitable beekeeper Rudym Panko. Its very brief content is necessary for the student, because Ukrainian folklore is difficult to understand, and it would not hurt to further clarify the main events of the work. in order to understand and remember the plot.
(275 words) On Christmas night, when a month has just ascended in heaven, and young people gather in carols, the devil steals a month from the sky. At the same time, the blacksmith Vakula comes to the daughter of the Cossack Chub Oksana. She taunts the couple in love and says that she will marry him, if only she gets little cuttings like the queen herself.
An annoyed couple goes home. And at home, Vakula’s mother, the witch of Solokh, takes turns taking a devil, a rural head, a clerk, and then Oksana Chub’s father. Frightened by the head, the devil crawls into one of the bags on the floor of the hut. The head is hiding in the same bag, with the arrival of the clerk. The clerk also soon finds himself in a bag because of Chub. And with the advent of Vakula, Chub also gets into the bag. Vakula takes the bags out of the hut, not noticing their severity, but having met Oksana with a crowd of carols, he throws everything except the lightest. He runs to Puzaty Patsyuk, who is rumored to be akin to the devil. Having achieved nothing from Patsyuk, the unfortunate blacksmith is again on the street, and then the devil jumps on him from the bag. Having crossed him, Vakula orders the evil spirits to take him to the Empress to Petersburg. Meanwhile, Chub, the clerk and the head are selected from the bags.
Vakula, once in St. Petersburg, persuades the Zaporozhye Cossacks to take him with him to an appointment at the Tsaritsyn Palace. There he asks Catherine for her royal shoes, and having received them, he quickly goes home.
There have already been rumors on the farm that Vakula committed suicide from grief and insanity. Oksana learns about this, cannot sleep all night, and not seeing the always devout blacksmith in the church in the morning, she realizes that she loves him.
Because of fatigue, Vakula slept in church service, and when he wakes up, he goes to marry Oksana with little butterflies. Chub gives his consent, as does his daughter, who no longer needs any shoes.
Review: Like all Gogol’s works, “The Night Before Christmas” is not devoid of mystical themes. Love, which is sometimes helped, or is obstructed by impure power, remains the main theme of almost every story in this cycle. And all this against the background of the life of the Ukrainian farm, with priceless flavor. And for a more accurate picture transmission - truly Gogol's vocabulary, using "talking" names and popular colloquial speech.
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