Pasa Tiempo -- And So To Zozobra... Finally.

2012 Burning of Zozobra, video posted to YouTube by Luke Fitch

2013 Burning of Zozobra, video posted by the Santa Fe New Mexican


Last night, among tens of thousands of other revelers, we hiked up to Fort Marcy Park above Santa Fe's Old Town for the singular experience of the 89th Annual Burning of (Will Shuster's) Zozobra, the fitting kick off to the final weekend of the  301st Annual Fiesta de Santa Fe, and like so many others at the event, we said "goodbye to care."

This was our first attendance at the Burning of Zozobra, as always before when we might have gone other matters intervened and we couldn't. Many -- many -- years ago we inadvertently attended the Entrada portion of Fiesta when we happened to be in the Plaza of Santa Fe as the re-enactors of the Conquistadores arrived on their horses with banners flying, settlers and refugees in tow, to symbolically reclaim the City Different from the uppity Indians who had driven them out in 1680. Little did we know...

The Entrada (actually wouldn't that be Re-Entrada?) was quite a spectacle, but it was far too solemn compared to the mockery of Fiesta and its solemnity that takes place up on the hill beforehand.

Zozobra is the product of one of the more humor oriented members of Santa Fe's artist colony in the 1920's, Will Shuster, whose other works are highly prized today, but none of them have the sheer brilliance of Zozobra.