This Week In Violence! Presents Takanakuy

Imagine spending your Christmas beating the shit out of your friends, family members and neighbours. Actually, wait. Some of you probably do that already. But imagine doing that and having one gigantic-ass party to go along with all the fisticuffs. That, folks, is the beauty of takanakuy.

Takanakuy is an annual festival held on December 25 in the Chumbivilcas province of Peru; the name is an indigenous Quechua word meaning “to hit each other” – nice, simple and to the point!

This region of Peru is very, very rural, and the population is not large – unlike much of the rest of the country, residents here still predominantly speak Quechua, the indigenous language that dates back to Incan rule of the land. There are a lot of cultural customs still practiced from days before the conquest of South America, many of which are readily apparent as part of the celebration of takanakuy. People develop grievances against other people all year long, and they then finally release them against those who they perceive have done them wrong in a fury of fists and feet. It’s like Festivus, but way more intense.

So to give a brief rundown:

• Over the couple days leading up to Christmas, people gather in the town of Santo Tomas and drink like crazy. Seems like we’re off to a good start!
• There are parades and music and dancing going on constantly throughout this time – the music, in particular, known as waylilla, is all about protesting authority and harkens back to standing up to Spanish conquest from about 1560 or so.
• On the morning of the fights, everyone gathers for breakfast (and more drinking) and then heads down to the middle of town to form an audience for the coming fights.
• Fighters will typically don one of five main costumes –Majeño (horse riding gear), Quarawatanna (similar to majeño but with leather chaps and/or biker jacket and a dead bird or deer skull on their head), Negro (slave master, with fancy dress), Langos (locust, which happened after a locust problem in the ’40s, which has shiny material like a bug and typically a dead bird on top), or the Q’ara Gallo (“naked rooster”; no costume). Traditional Peruvian ski masks are common for all of these, however.
• Anyone can fight – men, women and children alike – but fighting is typically just between one gender – no men fighting women or children, etc.
• To challenge someone to fight, you have to say their full name in this creepy-ass really high-pitched voice. It’s fucking weird. However, the creepy voice, and the masks, are an important part of the whole ordeal – you don’t realize who it is that you’re fighting until you step into the ring. Identities are concealed until the last possible moment.
• Fighting is pretty straightforward – wrap your hands with cloth, shake hands, and then no biting, hair-pulling, or hitting those on the ground. Almost everyone hugs it out afterward. If, however, you’re still not satisfied, you can challenge a person again for another fight.
• You can go until officials break you up. They also do crowd control with WHIPS. That’s fucking hardcore.
• If you’re still not happy, there’s a second day of fighting on December 26th that happens in the village of Llique, which sees its regular population of 300 swell to 3000 as the best fighters in the province come to duke it out. There is typically a step-up in the quality and savagery of the fights that happen here.

I found a few pretty satisfying videos of everything happening. It is a wild-ass time.

So all in all, it’s pretty intense but an extremely interesting way of settling disputes that has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, if not even longer. Due to the remote nature of the people of Chumbivilcas, they strongly adhere to their cultural heritage, which has been easier due to their remote nature preventing government services, police, and the military being able to support their remote region. Despite the government trying to crack down on takanakuy previously, the tradition has remained very strong, and even now is starting to be seen in larger cities like Cusco and Lima as well.

VICE News did a pretty great little documentary on it a few years ago, which you can watch here!

All in all, it’s frantic, superviolent, and a hell of a party. I’m thinking a [DFO] field trip may be in order one of these years. Better hit the gym, folks.