100 years of Zozobra!
I used to live in the historic art town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA when I was in college for film studies. On the last Friday of every August, the town kicks off a week of "Fiestas" (parties/celebrations in Spanish) by holding a huge cultural event called The Burning of Zozobra. "Zozobra" loosely means "anxiety" or "worry" in Spanish. The event was started in 1924 by Will Schuster (of Simon & Schuster Publishing fame) when he was living in Santa Fe with his artist friends. The event is to give people a chance to "burn their gloom" from the previous year inside a gigantic 50 ft. effigy of a character called "Zozobra" or "Old Man Gloom". A few weeks before the event takes place, you can mail in your "glooms" (i.e. anything that's bothering you, written on a slip of paper), and they will be stuffed inside Zozobra's head.During the Burning ceremony, thousands of people from all over Santa Fe (on average around 30,000 people) all gather at Fort Marcy Park in the center of town & Zozobra is lit on fire in a elaborate ceremony where everyone cheers as their glooms go up in flames, effectively ushering in better luck & "a clean slate" for a new year ahead.It's always a huge spectacle with hours of eating, drinking & picnics in the park beforehand. There are live mariachi artists (Mexican folk singers & guitarists), Native American dancers, rappers, cover bands, and a speech by the city mayor & dancing by groups of school children who are called "Gloomies" (Zozobra's helpers as he gets ready to be burned). Lastly, before Zozobra goes up in flames, one specially-appointed dancer, called "The Fire Dancer", appears to start the ritual & light the bottom of Zozobra's cloth & paper robes on fire. Once Zozobra is in flames, the entire crowd shouts "Burn him!" until he's reduced to ashes & the night ends with a fireworks show! To my knowledge, Santa Fe is the only place in the world that hosts this event & it's a very special cultural happening that every Santa Fean knows about & looks forward to. Santa Fe is known as "The City Different" because it's one of the oldest cities in the United States (Spainards first arrived in the 1600's) and it has a rich cultural heritage of Native Americans, Mexicans & Europeans with a large focus on the arts, music, writing, and film. We don't have many events like this in the United States, and when I realized that 2024 was going to be the historic 100th Burning of Zozobra, I knew I had to attend. My husband & I flew to Santa Fe for a long weekend and had an amazing time -- over 60,000 people showed up last year (that's 70% of Santa Fe's population!). We were also lucky enough to see an original opera about Zozobra (written by author Douglas Preston of Preston & Child / Pendergast novels fame) that was on stage for only 2 days for this 100th anniversary event.Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Zozobra have always held a special place in my heart -- incredible food (green chiles are to die for!), the stark & stunning beauty of the high desert, fascinating people, and the magic that happens with the melding of so many unique cultures. Would you attend the Burning of Zozobra if you had the chance? What would you submit for your "gloom"?Learn more about the origins of Zozobra in this article by the New Mexico History Museum!https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/exhibition/details/6134/zozobra-a-fire-that-never-goes-out
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