Zozobra ("Old Man Gloom") is the name of a giant marionette effigy that is burned every autumn during Fiestas de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, usually during the second week of September. As his name suggests, he embodies gloom; by burning him, the worries and troubles of the previous year are destroyed in the flames. Sometimes shoppers in the Santa Fe area will see tin cans with pieces of paper next to them in department and local stores. Anyone is welcome to write about anything bothering them. These small papers are put in the cans, and eventually they are all collected and put at Zozobra's feet to be burned alongside him. Fiestas de Santa Fe has been held since 1712 to celebrate the retaking of the city in 1692 by Don Diego de Vargas after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The burning of Zozobra dates from 1924, when William Howard Shuster, Jr. came up with the idea of creating the effigy, also called Old Man Gloom. Today over forty thousand

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