ZOZOBRA News:
SANTA FE – 2020 is without a doubt the most woeful, wearying and worrisome year in anyone’s memory … and Santa Fe is about to do something about that!
Zozobra, first created in 1924 by artist Will Shuster, is a spooky specter who materializes from all the bad habits, faults and failings that human beings accumulate over the course of each year, and every incarnation of this old trouble-maker mirrors whatever anxieties are disrupting the harmony of daily life.
The conjunction of Santa Fe’s most iconic character and COVID-19 is resulting in a momentous occasion Friday, Sept. 4, when the 96th Burning of Zozobra, the original burning man, takes place in front of a television and webcast audience.
This 50-foot tall, fully functioning marionette built by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe every summer is stuffed full of glooms –– shredded pieces of paper on which are written the sad and sorrowful thoughts the writers wish to be freed of in order to help them become their better selves.
You could say that the Burning of Zozobra is Santa Fe’s real New Year!
Normally an event that welcomes upwards of 65,000 revelers who gather together to burn their gloom, this year’s tradition will be a no-crowd event, for which the depression and despair of this difficult year have brought forth a reincarnation of this ghastly, ghostly character.
The color of Zozobra’s hair is always the final reveal at the annual Burning, kept secret until the day of the event, and avid Zozobra fans spend hours speculating about what color it will be.
This year, there was no question about the hair –– the gloomy giant’s tresses absolutely had to have the appearance of the coronavirus.
Made of silver shredded paper, red hair scrunchies molded into resin triangles and complementary orange ping-pong balls, the top of the monster’s head is a visual reminder that Zozobra indeed behaves like a virus, trying to infect humankind with dark thoughts and sad feelings.
Because Zozobra 2020 will be no-crowd and will lack the ticket sales that Kiwanis normally uses to help fund area nonprofits, the Burn My Gloom program will still help Kiwanis make a better life for kids! Gloom-burners will also do a good deed by extinguishing the anxieties of this difficult year. Just submit that gloom, upload a document or picture –– note to self: calendar –– choose the specific place inside Zozobra for the gloom to burn or even give the gift of gloom-riddance to a special someone.