The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe makes it easier than ever to burn your gloom for 2020 with a televised and live-streamed event Friday, Sept. 4. Courtesy/Kiwanis
ZOZOBRA News:
SANTA FE – 2020 has been a tough year … an anxious year … isn’t it time to let go of all that gloom?
Santa Fe has the biggest and best answer to that question –– the original burning man, Zozobra, a weird, wonderful, one-of-a-kind 96-year-old tradition!
An eerie 50-foot tall marionette, Zozobra embodies the gloom that has been built up through this difficult year, and this spectral doomsayer will return for the 96th time to battle the Fire Spirit, brought to life by the collective goodwill and united spirit of all who yearn for a better world.
In place of the festival’s typical activities, this year’s celebration will have no crowd and will instead be televised live Friday, Sept. 4 on KOAT Channel 7, the New Mexico ABC affiliate, and live-streamed online at https://www.koat.com/.
Since 1924, the City of Santa Fe has built and burned Zozobra, stuffed full from head to toe with thousands of glooms –– bad habits, hurt feelings, love letters, divorce papers, photos, paid-off mortgages, parking tickets –– all placed on paper and stuffed inside Zozobra, all destined to go up in smoke when this New Mexico icon goes down in flames and fury.
An early Zozobra. Courtesy/Kiwanis
Relationship gone south? Boss too bossy? Had it up to here with the virus? Whatever it is, we will burn your gloom for you!
Looking to be a little introspective? Want to examine what you’ve done to cause gloom for others this year? What part of you do you want to leave in the past so you can start anew? This year, the Santa Fe Kiwanis, keepers of Zozobra’s flame, have made it easier than ever to let all your sorrows, stress and despair become part of Zozobra’s ashes.
Thanks to the new Burn My Gloom web-based submission page, anyone anywhere can simply enter their gloom on the website for a nominal $1 fee. Not only will you be ridding yourself of your gloom, you will also be making a difference in a child’s life; past recipients of Zozobra’s net proceeds have resulted in funding the following programs; Cooking with Kids, Casa Familia, Girls, Inc. of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Youth Symphony, Adaptive Sports of New Mexico, Reel Fathers Ltd., Wise Fool New Mexico, Santa Fe Dreamers Project, Bike Santa Fe, Girls on the Run, Feeding Santa Fe, Unlocked Minds, Inc. and Assistance Dogs of the West among others.
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time. For more than a century, Kiwanis has created opportunities for children to be curious, safe and healthy regardless of the community in which they live. The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe will donate the net proceeds of the 2020 Burn My Gloom campaign to area nonprofits that help make life better for children, and 20 percent of the proceeds will also be used to help fund The Eliminate Project.
The Eliminate Project, Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined forces to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus—a deadly disease that steals the lives of nearly 31,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year.
Learn more about how the fundraising of Santa Fe Kiwanis Club and the Burning of Zozobra have been helping children to learn, experience, dream, grow, succeed and thrive in their communities.
Kiwanis will print each gloom out on paper and burn it in the classic tradition that originated with Zozobra’s creator, Will Shuster. In 1924, Shuster invited his artist pals to write down their glooms on paper, which he ceremoniously burned on the top of the bar at La Fonda hotel. Needless to say, he and his friends were promptly thrown out on their rear ends!