Takanakuy — Christmas ritual fights
Andean Reconciliation Ritual · Santo Tomás, Chumbivilcas Province, Peru
Micro
The festival
At Christmas, we fight with bare fists — then we kiss each other, and the year starts again from scratch. Every 25 December, in Santo Tomás, the inhabitants settle the grievances of the past year by ritual struggles, men, women and children, in front of the whole community, to the sound of Huaylia music: an insult, a disputed land, a debt, a rivalry — everything is divided in the square. The fighting is regulated and supervised, and each one ends with a brazenness and reconciliation.
His name says: in Quechua, takanakuy means "strike each other" (takay, hit ; nakuyThe festival opens on December 24 with the Niño apaykuna, the procession of the Child Jesus carried from house to house by the carguyoq, the organizers of the party.
On the 25th, in the square and in the arenas of Santo Tomás, the dancers enter the scene in bright costumes and colorful wool masks — the uya chullo — to the sound of the huaylia, the traditional song of Chumbivilcas carried by the voices of women. The characters of the feast — Majeño, Q-arawatana, Negro, Langosta — dance between the fighting. Each confrontation is brief, consented, announced aloud and supervised by referees and by the roundos, community order guards.
Researchers debate a possible filiation with pre-Hispanic rituals: a discussed seniority, presented here as such.
Festival TV , an endless exploration of festivals and festivals around the world
The festival in images
Tradition n
In our articles
Good to know
The Andean community tradition, celebrated also in other villages of Chumbivilcas and the Southern Andean — no official website or ticket office, no official figures published. Photo credit: © Aldo Cristian Ccansaya Curi — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Custom is recorded in the Peruvian National Tourism Inventory (MINCETUR) under the name "Costumbre El Takanakuy". Santo Tomás, capital of the province of Chumbivilcas (Cusco region), is visited all year round.
To see around the festival
Santo Tomás is not just about his Christmas fights: the municipality has made it the starting point of its "Ruta del Quorilazo", the tourist circuit of the province.
- The colonial temple of Santo Tomás — 17th century stone church, jewel of the Andean Baroque declared the nation's cultural heritage in 1944 and restored by the Ministry of Culture (reintroduced to the population in December 2021): Baroque altar, golden pulpit and colonial canvases, on the village square.
- The Wamanmarka Archaeological Zone — pre-inca citadel taken over by the Incas: terraces, enclosures, stairs and temples, in the district of Santo Tomás.
- Chsucchu thermal springs (Chuqkcho) — thermo-mineral waters recorded in the national tourism inventory, in the community of Llique Curahuata: the hot break after the lively air of the heights.
Liens officiels
The Takanakuy has no official dedicated site: it is a community tradition carried by the inhabitants and their carguyoq. The institutional relay is the provincial municipality of Chumbivilcas, on the official platform of the Peruvian State. Contact being verified.