Zozobra

The Burning of Zozobra is a unique cultural event in Santa Fe, New Mexico, staged annually at Fort Marcy Park on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. This 100-year tradition was first held in 1924.

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. He was inspired by Easter Holy Week traditions in the Yaqui Indian communities of Arizona and Mexico, in which an effigy of Judas is led around the village on a donkey and ultimately set alight. Shuster and his friend, E. Dana Johnson, editor of the local newspaper, came up with the name Zozobra, which in Spanish means “anguish, anxiety, or gloom.” Today, the iconic spectacle is staged annually by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe.

Zozobra, also known as Old Man Gloom, has been the subject of countless works of art ever since.