Will a gloomy economy end with Zozobra?

SANTA FE, NM (KRQE) - The gloomy economy will take center stage at Thursday night's 85th annual burning of Zozobra in Santa Fe where tens of thousands of people are expected to attend.

The crowd will watch what's become a tradition; a 50 ft. boogey man burning up glooms and dooms from the past year. People put their gloom notes into the gloom box when at 8:30 p.m. the notes will then be put into the bottom of Zozobra and burned away.

"Zozobra is a hideous but harmless fifty-foot bogeyman marionette. He is a toothless, empty-headed facade. He has no guts and doesn't have a leg to stand on. He is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He never wins. He moans and groans, rolls his eyes and twists his head. His mouth gapes and chomps. His arms flail about in frustration. Every year we do him in. We string him up and burn him down in ablaze of fireworks. At last, he is gone, taking with him all our troubles for another whole year. Santa Fe celebrates another victory. Viva la Fiesta! - A.W. Denninger" Source: www.zozobra.com/history.html

From bank statements to glooms about unemployment, event coordinator Ray Valdez says economic hardships helped fill this year's Zozobra.

Among the gloom notes will be 600 wedding invitations. The woman who sent them also sent a note that they will no longer be needed because she called off the wedding.

Even with the sluggish economy event coordinators expect 20,000 plus people will attend Thursday night's event. They say ticket sales prior to the event were stronger than last year.

Along with the fire spirit dancer, who appear at the top of the stage to drive away the white-sheeted "glooms" from the base of the giant Zozobra, the event has live music and food vendors, where they hope they won't feel the economic pinch this year.