Meet Zozobra: The Story Behind Santa Fe’s Old Man Gloom

Every city has its traditions. Santa Fe has one where tens of thousands of people gather in a field and yell “BURN HIM!” at a 50-foot-tall groaning marionette.

Welcome to Zozobra.

If you’re new to Santa Fe—or visiting over Labor Day weekend—the Burning of Zozobra can require a little explaining. Old Man Gloom, as he’s also known, is enormous, slightly terrifying, intentionally ridiculous, and one of Santa Fe’s most beloved traditions.

And we’ve been setting him on fire for more than a century.

So, what exactly is Zozobra?

Zozobra is a giant marionette built from wood, wire and cloth, then stuffed with shredded paper—including thousands of “glooms” submitted by people who would very much like to leave something behind.

Bad memories. Old love letters. Divorce papers. Parking tickets. Photos. Written-down worries. Whatever you’re ready to be done with.

They all go inside.

Then, on the Friday before Labor Day, Zozobra meets the Fire Spirit in front of a huge crowd at Fort Marcy Park. There’s music, pageantry, fireworks, plenty of noise, and Zozobra’s unmistakable groaning as the crowd gets increasingly impatient for the obvious conclusion.

Eventually, the Fire Spirit wins.

Zozobra burns.

Everyone cheers.

It makes considerably more sense once you’ve been there.

How Zozobra began

The story starts in 1924 with Santa Fe artist Will Shuster, one of Los Cinco Pintores, a group of painters who helped establish Santa Fe’s early reputation as an artists’ community.

Shuster had traveled to Mexico, where he saw a Holy Week tradition involving the burning of an effigy of Judas. Drawing inspiration from that and other regional traditions, he came home with an idea of his own: create a physical embodiment of the worries and troubles people carry around—and then destroy it.

The first Zozobra was only about six feet tall and was burned in Shuster’s backyard during a gathering of artists and writers.

It caught on.

By 1926, the burning had become a public event. Over the decades, the little backyard effigy grew into the enormous marionette Santa Feans know today.

Even the name is appropriately dramatic. Shuster and his friend E. Dana Johnson, then editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican, reportedly found zozobra in a Spanish-English dictionary while searching for the right word to describe gloom. The Spanish word conveys a sense of anxiety, unease or anguish.

In other words: Old Man Gloom.

From a backyard party to a Santa Fe institution

Zozobra eventually grew well beyond anything Shuster could stage himself. In 1964, he transferred the event and the rights to Zozobra to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which continues to produce the burning today.

And the scale has changed just a bit.

Modern-day Zozobra stands roughly 50 feet tall, weighs around 3,000 pounds by showtime and towers over a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands. His arms move. His head moves. He groans. The crowd taunts him. The Fire Spirit dances. And, after all that buildup, the whole thing goes spectacularly up in flames.

The event has also become the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe’s major annual fundraiser, with net proceeds supporting organizations that serve children throughout New Mexico.

So beneath all the wonderfully strange spectacle, there’s a serious community purpose as well.

Zozobra 2026: 102 years of burning away the gloom

This year’s Burning of Zozobra takes place Friday, September 4, 2026, at Fort Marcy Park, just north of downtown Santa Fe.

It marks the 102nd year of Zozobra, continuing a tradition that began with that first backyard burning in 1924.

Gates open at 4 p.m., the program begins at 6 p.m., and the actual burning and fireworks happen after dark, subject—as always—to weather and wind conditions.

And if you’re going, plan accordingly. This is not a “leave the house 15 minutes beforehand and find a convenient parking spot” kind of Santa Fe event. Roads around Fort Marcy close, traffic gets complicated, and a very large portion of the city seems to be headed in the same direction at once.

Why Zozobra still matters

There are older traditions in Santa Fe, and certainly more solemn ones. But there’s something particularly Santa Fe about Zozobra.

It’s art and theater and history and community ritual all at once. It’s a little weird. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. And somehow, getting thousands of people together to scream at an enormous puppet before watching the year’s collective troubles go up in flames still feels pretty satisfying.

Especially after a difficult year.

Living in Santa Fe means gradually accumulating these markers on the calendar—the events that signal not just what month it is, but what season of Santa Fe life you’re in.

Zozobra is one of the big ones.

Summer is winding down. Fiesta is coming.

Time to burn the gloom.