Gallery Photographer Gabriela E. Campos Photographs Centennial Burning of Zozobra

Via The Santa Fe New Mexican

August 31, 2024

Gallery Photographer Gabriela E. Campos covered the 100th burning of Zozobra and the Santa Fe New Mexican featured her fantastic photograph full-page on the front cover of today's print edition: Zozobra burns in massive, joyous inferno for centennial.

 

Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

The Burning of Zozobra is a unique cultural event in Santa Fe staged annually by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe in Zozobra Field at Fort Marcy Park on the Friday of Labor Day weekend as an exciting and fiery finale to the last days of summer. 

Artist William Howard “Will” Shuster, Jr. created the first Zozobra in 1924 as the signature highlight of a private party for Los Cinco Pintores, a group of artists and writers who made their way to New Mexico in the 1920s.

Zozobra in Spanish means “anguish, anxiety, or gloom”, by burning it, people destroy the worries and troubles of the previous year in the flames.

 Made of wood, wire, and cotton cloth and stuffed with bushels of shredded paper, which traditionally includes obsolete police reports, paid-off mortgages, and even divorce papers, Zozobra is a dark and eerie character, part ghost and part monster

The 90th Annual Burning of Zozobra, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014

 

 

Zozobra (Old Man Gloom) is a giant marionette effigy that is built and burned every by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe to kick off Fiestas de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As his name suggests, he embodies gloom; by burning him, people destroy the worries and troubles of the previous year in the flames. Anyone with an excess of gloom is encouraged to write down the nature of his or her gloom on a slip of paper and it will be stuffed into Zozobra and burned.

Submit your worries now & watch them go up in digital smoke with

the Burning of Virtual Zozobra

More information here. A link to the Internet live stream will be posteed here.

(The Gallery will close at 2 PM on Friday, August 29 and resume regular hours Saturday and Sunday, 10 - 5.)

SEPTEMBER IN SANTA FE

Ernst Haas: White Sands, New Mexico, 1952

It is September first, and the Labor Day weekend looms before us. As the summer slowly fades, September events abound in Santa Fe. Autumn arrives and so does cooler weather, although on some days it may seem like it is still summer.

Following the Labor Day weekend, Its time for the 298th Santa Fe Fiesta. "The streets are filled with joyous shouts of "Viva la Fiesta" September 10 - 12, when the oldest community event in the U.S. takes place. The week-long festivities commemorate the reoccupation of Santa Fe led by Don Diego de Vargas in 1692, a dozen years after the Pueblo Indian Revolt. The city pulls out all the stops for this annual celebration, starting with the Burning of Zozobra, the dramatic torching of a 49-foot tall marionette that groans and grimaces as he goes up in flames and fireworks at Fort Marcy Park, burning everyone's troubles from the past year. His ending marks the beginning of Fiesta, filled with music, dance, food, the beloved Children's Pet Parade, religious ceremonies and more. Blending pageantry with revelry and treasured traditions, Fiesta is a favorite time for visitors and locals alike."

Another favored tradition, this year's 20th Annual Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta takes place September 22 - 26. Devoted to the fruitful pairing of wine and chile, this late September annual fiesta has become a favorite with food and wine connoisseurs across the country. It features more than 110 wineries and nearly 50 Santa Fe chefs participating in seminars, cooking demonstrations, guest chef luncheons, winemaker dinners, and the famous Grand Food and Wine Tasting.

September is also the final opportunity to view the acclaimed exhibition Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure, through September 26. We hope to see you in Santa Fe!