Zozobra's fiery demise lifts spririts

SANTA FE (KRQE) - A year of rancor and recession and the cares of thousands of New Mexicans vanished in flames and fireworks Thursday night on the funeral pyre of Old Man Gloom.

Better known as Zozobra, the 50-foot boogeyman moaned and groaned flailing his arms as fire dancers lit up the night around his feet. Inside were notes listing individual trouble and woe filled out by some of the many thousands who filled the Fort Marcy Park baseball field for the fiery beginning of Fiestas de Santa Fe.

“Burn him! Burn him!” the crowd chanted as the flaming spectacle that dates to the 1920s grew nearer.

Kayla O’Leary of Albuquerque, who joined the Navy nearly a year ago, was one of those who wrote out her worries and then watched them rise as embers into the night sky.

“I wrote down forgetting my Dad died and for help with my mother’s problems, and I want to be successful in the Navy,” O’Leary told KRQE News 13.

Christine Rousselet, visiting Santa Fe from Paris, didn’t have Zozobra on her agenda until she dropped by the Tad Tribal Art Galley and met owner Sandy Dale. Dale hadn’t been to Zozobra herself in several years and overcame concerns about the weather to invited Rousselet and Michel Bloch to the event.

Rousselet conceded she was a little sad to see Zozobra collapse into burning debris but came away feeling her burdens had been lifted.

“I can tell you it was something wonderful,” she said. “I put in all my sadness.
“Everybody together will see that things will be better.”
Two downpours hit the field late in the afternoon but quickly passed. As a steady stream of people filled the park the even turned pleasantly cool.
It also was suggested that Zozobra should be considered a giant birthday candle for the city of Santa Fe which currently is celebrating the 400th anniversary of its founding.

 

Sympathy for the devil

Zozobra may contain all the woes of the last year, but he still has sympathizers.

Westin McDowell of Santa Fe came to Fort Marcy Park dressed formally under his raincoat and with his face painted a respectful and skeletal black and white. He will not be among those dancing with glee when Zozobra burns later this evening taking the worlds woes with him.

“I’m always said when he goes,” McDowell said.

 

Front and Center
 

An afternoon shower and a few chips of hail damped the ground at Fort Marcy Park but not the spirit of the growing crowd here to send the year’s troubles up in smoke and flame.

Robert Chavez and his daughter Anna arrived early to spread a blanket front and center below Zozobra, the 50-foot marionette holding all the year’s troubles. His burning marks the start of the Fiestas de Santa Fe, an annual tradition since 1712.

“This is our favorite spot,” Anna told KRQE News 13.

Anna is carrying on the family tradition with her father just as he did when his parents brought him. While the fiesta is centuries old, Zozobra himself only dates to 1924 when Santa Fe artist Will Shuster created the creature whose fiery death brings relief to the world.

“I just want him to burn everybody’s problems over the years,” Robert said. “Just to have fun. No fighting.

“Get away from everything and just relax.”

The gates opened at 3 p.m. with music starting at 4 and the quick shower arriving shortly after that.

The forecast for the rest of the evening is mostly cloudy with widely scattered whooping and hollering. The ceremony marking the demise of Old Man Gloom starts at dusk and includes dancers, music, fireworks and the last groans of the symbolic boogeyman.

The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe has stage the event since the early 1960s drawing tens of thousands to the park just north of downtown Santa Fe.