El Santurantikuy, Cusqueño Popular Art Fair

Cusqueño Popular Art Fair

 

The world celebration of Christmas in Cusco acquires special contours, because around it there are various activities. The city lives a festive atmosphere with the arrangement of the balconies of the Monumental Center, with lights, garlands and Christmas motifs. The Municipality from the first days of the month of December places beautiful luminous allegories that brighten the nights of the city.

Every December 24, the largest fair of folk and folk art in Peru is held in the Plaza Mayor: The Santurantikuy fair, where hundreds of artisans from different parts of Cusco and other regions of the country exhibit beautiful and original works fruit of his creative spirit throughout the year and which will adorn the births of homes and institutions. El Niño Manuelito is the central character of the Christmas party in Cusco.

SANTURANTIKUY

Shortly after the Spanish colony was established in Peru, in the city of Cusco, after the defeat – or decay – of the Inca society and already “assimilated” the Catholic religion, it began to be celebrated every December 24, in the Plaza Mayor of each town or community, the festival of Santurantikuy; popular art fair, in which the Quechua word says it all: Santu (saints) and Ticuy (sale).

 

The people of Cusco celebrate Christmas in the framework of the lively culture of the villages of the Andes

Many of the chronicles of the colony, which were written around the seventeenth century, report that Spanish priests roamed the hamlets trying to catechize the native Indians. Just during Christmas, they talked about Enmanuel, the boy who was born in Bethlehem and whose name means “God with us.”

Despite the imposition of the Catholic religion, the Andean people did not forget their religious traditions, keeping them almost hidden. Nature, for them, had its own spiritual representations: the Apu, spirit of the hill; the Pachamama, the earth and the Inti, the Sun as divine maker.

In Cusco, a city with great indigenous tradition, the image of Niño Manuel, is revered every year during the Christmas Holidays, through a holiday called “Santurantikuy”. This celebration is prepared up to six months in advance – according to the artisans who comment on us. When the time comes, everything is staged in the Plaza de Armas, where artisans from all the surrounding cities arrive with their creations, which show a fair that thousands of people visit. The image of the child Manuelito, has been created by artisans with different attitudes. Some have a face with red badges and a mischievous look. His body seems to have Indian skin and keeps his arms open as a sign of welcome. Others have sculpted, tired and almost asleep; Sometimes thoughtful and smiling.

In the past, Santurantikuy connoted the presence of “altars” and ended at three or four in the afternoon. That same day, and from early in the morning, artisans began to arrive, some from distant communities, with their blankets loaded with Manuelitos children – as the baby Jesus is called – shepherds, wise men, virgins, angels and everything that May be incorporated at birth. They come to buy some pieces to give away and others to incorporate, each year a piece, to their births.

Hoy se ha convertido en una de las más grandes ferias artesanales del Perú. Es en las veredas de la Plaza Mayor del Cusco, donde los artistas tienden sus mantas, siguiendo la costumbre de las tradicionales ferias andinas. Santurantikuy, en un mercado provisional donde imagineros y artesanos ofrecen las más diversas figurillas para alegrar las fiestas navideñas y acompañar los pesebres o “nacimientos” que se arman en las casas y parroquias.

Se puede observar todo tipo de objetos artesanales como tallas en madera, cerámica y retablos. Durante las noches se venden los tradicionales ponches para calentar el cuerpo.

Currently, the Santurantikuy folk art fair is organized by the Municipal Company of Festejos del Cusco, EMUFEC SA, giving it an order and functional sense with spaces duly marked and delimited by specialties, these being:

 

• Decorative Ceramics

• Imagery

• Woodwork and tree bark

• Miniatures and watermarks

• Artistic Ceremony

• High relief

• Silversmith’s

• Works in Piedrav * Leather works

• Sculpture

• Paintings of the Cusqueña School

• Manuelitos children

• Work in dried flowers.