There is a tradition in Santa Fe New Mexico. According to my brother (and this is confirmed by Wikipedia):
- Once a year people go to the Newspaper office, write down their grievances, and put them in a box. The box holds slips of paper, legal documents, anything that brings you “gloom.”
- The gloom documents are stuffed in the head of a five-story-tall marionette.
- The giant marionette is propped up in the town square, sporting a new hair color that changes every year.
- At night children dance about it chanting, “burn him, burn him.”
- The Big Box o’ Gloom is placed at the giant marionette’s feet and is ignited.
- The marionette “roars” and writhes, and then its face explodes in flames.
- It burns until you can see the metal framework, then the cables are cut and it collapses in a pile of flames.
- They play popular songs.
- There is also street drinking.
My brother woke me up at ten at night to watch Zozobra burn. He has had a bad 2020. As have we all. There are usually 10,000 complaints in the box o’ Gloom. This year it was 100,000 items.
I approve of this burning puppet scheme. (I approve of all things involving marionettes). I might need to have my own mini Zozobra event on the barbecue.