Santa Fe Fiesta and the Burning of Zozobra
There's a busy week and a half coming up in Santa Fe. First we have Labor Day and the annual craft fair on the plaza. A great time to be at the plaza, there's plenty to eat, drink and lots of unique, beautiful and one-of-a-kind and hand-made items to oooh and ahhh over before buying a painting or art clothing or jewelry to take home.
The temperatures have dropped a little out of the mid nineties into the high eitghties and certainly we all hope it holds through Labor Day and the following week.
And the following week is something to see. For four days Santa Fe Fiesta is at its peak. There are a lot of events throughout the summer leading up to Fiesta, in fact it really began back in June when the Fiesta royalty was crowned. There have also been church mases honoring “Our Lady, La Conquistadora.” And while there are those who decry the robust revelry and want to adhere more to the religious aspects of Fiesta, the truth of the matter is the really big party begins Thursday night (this year Sept. 6) with the burning of Zozobra (Old Man Gloom). Prior to the burning, a local weekly newspaper, the Reporter, offers a place where you can deposit your sad thoughts – your divorce papers, paid speeding tickets or other depressing burnables – at 132 East Marcy Street. Everything they collect will be put into Zozobra for the burning after sunset on Thursday. The last day to deliver those burnable gloomy thoughts is Wednesday Sept. 5.
Then the party really gets going with Mariachi music, a festive crowd (a really big crowd) lots of food booths (closed for the burning) waiting down at the plaza.
When full dark descends the fire dancers appear and soon the Kiwanis Club sponsored burning of Will Shuster's Zozobra is under way. The puppet-like Old Man Gloom glares down at the crowd at his feet through pizza pan eyes, groans and roars. The little glooms and the Fire Dancer approach and retreat, teasing the towering monster and ultimately set the white-robed king of gloom with the bright orange hair alight. The flames engulf him with a spectacular fireworks display as backdrop and the roar of the crowd chanting 'burn him, burn him!' as thunderous music to sweep away the gloom of a hard year past and signal the beginning of the new with a clean slate.
Many of the businesses downtown are closed part or all day Friday. The party continues right on through the weekend with food booths offering Indian Fry Bread, Navajo Tacos, Grilled Corn, Carnitas, a great concoction of watermelon juice and much more. Galleries, shops and restaurants are open as usual. Music and entertainment go on throughout the weekend. There's the Pet Parade on Sat. morning included in that and it, too, is very entertaining! There's a second craft show going on through the weekend as well, though generally smaller than the one over Labor Day weekend.
Fiesta the big event of the summer, and a spectacle not to be missed. It really is one heckuva party and when it all winds down on Sunday most folk are about ready to go home, kick back and recover.
A couple of tips. If you're not in the party mood and participating in all this be aware the plaza is going to be very, very, very crowded. Traffic is cut off about every which way you turn. Parade routes are closed. Procession routes are closed. It can be very difficult to figure out what throughway is open when. Knots of people wander into the streets. Music is loud (fun if you're in party mode – can be irritating if you just want to walk around). And of course, as always in Santa Fe, parking can become a headache. If you walk a lot my advice is to park some distance away and hike to the plaza. Be aware too that waits at the food booths can, at times, easily reach 45 minutes to an hour as lines lengthen. If all this is fun for you, cultivate patience and have a great time. If it isn't, my advice is to avoid the downtown for those few days because there's just no avoiding the whole Fiesta celebration.
