Peruvians in the Southern region of Chumbivilcas gather every year at Christmas for the Takanakuy festival, where they settle scores by fighting.
Locals congregate in the Andes Mountains for a day of fistfights, drinking, dancing, and music.
The activity aims to build community ties and settle disputes before the new year arrives.
Locals announce who they want to fight, and Judges declare the winner after the contest.
The fights are open to people of any age and gender and pertain to disputes ranging from romance issues to land squabbles.
According to media reports, the fights begin and end with a hug.
Interesting. It appears the Peruvians have found the perfect solution to settling societal disputes….have a bust up at Christmas…maybe they should institute that in St Lucia because clearly the men and women don’t know how to settle disputes but resort to deadly violence….maybe a societal agreement to allow a punch up in the Derek Walcott square every Christmas will meet with everyone’s approval and when it’s all said and done, one pugilist will go home and nurse their wounded shame and the other can claim bragging rights…since the government have no idea how to deal with the scourge of Crime..maybe they should take a page from our southern neighbor’s book….it would be interesting to see Pierre calling up Chastenet for a punch up in the park…I know on who my money is on …
C-WIZ , I really do not think that the fight would end at the square. POW ! POW !
@Gangsta
But still, it would give St Lucians some good entertainment in this time of crime and uncertainty…and I assure you, all these flambeau and star supporters that are at each others throat all year round for once will join in the spectacle, put their differences aside and for once unite as a country to watch a punch up between Chast and Pip..even the gun toters would put their guns down to savour the spectacle….and St Lucia would get some relief from crime at least….and the good news is, when it’s all said and done, they will hug each other in the style of the Peruvians..in the end one would have his pride bruised and the other gets bragging rights…..but at least no one would have lost life or limb…so we all win…to a certain extent…..what a sight that will be…😂
@ C – WIZ that would never happen in St. Lucia; something happened which have caused St. Lucians to (1) hate each other. (2) distrust each other. (3) be divided, politically, socially, Religiously and educationally.
As a youngster I fought all the time, sometime just for fun, but look out, when its real, it was a lot of E-GAS going ’round. I was always sorry for the poor sucker and I’d pay for the drinks. Today you just have to look the guy the wrong way – Bang, Bang; this uncivilized society is not for me, let the Government do as they please.
@The Fox
Here is what I think happened to St Lucia and this list is not exhaustive cause there are multi- faceted issues that have created the St Lucia we have today.
A society has to make progress in its existence as a State developmentally, socially, morally, educationally, economically, politically, psychologically, mentally ( mentality), over a period of time…the list is not exhaustive. But that progress can be incremental or a vast leap in a short period… circumstances can dictate the speed of progress.
Now if you look at these adjectives and adverbs mentioned above, where would you rate St Lucia on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the greatest and 1 being the least. Has St Lucia progressed economically in its development? In its education?, in politics? In its psychology?…it’s might appear that the GDP may have risen since Sir John revolutionised Castries city but here is the issue…these successes have not trickled down to the people that matter, the ordinary citizens which make up the 99% of the population. If a society has to attain a balance of peace and tranquility within its fabric, the people must benefit financially, educationally, psychologically etc etc in the progress… Take for e.g… progressing educationally…while there are lots of primary schools and secondary schools in St Lucia, there is only one college and no university one the Island and yet the literacy level is St Lucia is pretty low by all standards…even now we don’t even have a home grown university where our people can go attain a higher education but have to pay exorbitant sums to be educated oversees…and even when they attain their Degrees or masters or PhD’s they can’t find a job in St Lucia because they are either too qualified, or there are not jobs to suit their skills or what job was available is already occupied because there is only one post in the entire island…then this talent goes to waste ..in fact other countries benefit from their talents by employing them…now I don’t blame the educated for selling their skills to the highest bidder but it has a direct effect on our nation to progress educationally… St Lucia needs atleast 5 Colleges and 4 Universities ..now apply that scrutiny to the other adverbs and adjectives above and you will see what happened to St Lucia…..we have failed to progress or build on the progress of our predecessors… because we have not progressed politically, we have not progressed morally, we have not progressed economically etc etc…where are the men and women of Sir Arthur Lewis’ and Sir Walcott’s calibre? The St Lucia that produced two Nobel laureates in the second half of the 20th century had a formula for success and succeed it did. But no longer.. the calibre of politicians we have are guilty of stagnating the nation through their divisive politics and the nation follow suite…so here you can see a direct co-relation between a people who has not progress educationally which affects our progress politically…cause educated people would be able to reason, debate, decern and come to a come understanding that they are the democracy not the politician…listen to the youth…even those at school..express themselves…they find it hard to string a proper sentence together so that they can be understood….I cringe when I hear even students from the most prestigious schools on the island struggle to express themselves…I am certain you see and hear the same too….it’s time to be honest.
Now look at how we have not progressed economically and how it co-relates to not progressing socially…and do that analysis between any two adverbs or adjectives above…it is clear to see…this is what happened to Saint Lucia.
Maybe there is still hope yet left in the drying bones of fair Helen.