Zozobra: Watching Old Man Gloom Go Up in Flames

Every fall, tens of thousands of people gather in Santa Fe to watch a fifty-foot puppet burn. Zozobra — 'Old Man Gloom' — is stuffed with the written worries, regrets, and bad memories of the community, then set spectacularly alight, and the catharsis is as real as the flames.

Feeding the gloom

In the weeks before the burn, people deposit their 'glooms' — divorce papers, bad reports, written-down anxieties — to be stuffed inside the towering marionette. When Zozobra burns, so, symbolically, does everything troubling the city.

Fifty feet of gloom goes up in flames, and forty thousand people cheer their worries away.

A groaning giant

As night falls, the puppet moans and flails, animated by hidden operators, while fire dancers taunt him below. The crowd chants 'Burn him!' until, at last, he ignites in a roar of flame and fireworks.

Older than you'd think

Created by an artist in the 1920s, Zozobra has grown from a small gathering into a massive annual event that kicks off Santa Fe's historic Fiestas. It's strange, a little eerie, and deeply beloved.

Field notes

• You can submit your own 'glooms' to be burned beforehand.
• Arrive early — crowds are enormous and parking scarce.
• It marks the start of Santa Fe's annual Fiestas.

Weird, fiery, and unexpectedly moving, Zozobra is Santa Fe's most singular tradition. Watch Old Man Gloom collapse in flame and you may find yourself, oddly, feeling lighter.