In 16 years as producer of Will Shuster’s Zozobra, Ray Valdez said the weirdest thing he’s seen thrown into the 50-foot marionette was a string of straightjackets sewn together. On the straightjackets was what Valdez considered some terrible poetry, written about the despair and anguish the person in the straightjacket must have experienced. “On a rainy night in September 2006, we burned it,” Valdez said. Thursday night, Santa Feans renew the tradition of ridding their frustrations as they watch Zozobra burn. It’s a tradition that began in 1924. As described on its Web site, Zozobra is a “toothless, empty-headed facade. He has no guts and doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He never wins. He moans and groans, rolls his eyes and twists his head. His mouth gapes and chomps. His arms flail about in frustration. “Every year we do him in. We string him up and burn him down in a blaze of fireworks. At last, he is gone, taking with him all our troubles for another whole year,” the Zozobra Web site says. Zozobra is stuffed with bushels of shredded paper, which traditionally includes obsolete police reports, paid off mortgage papers, and even personal divorce papers. This year, a woman put a box of wedding invitations into the Box of Gloom, which is emptied into Zozobra. She told Valdez she wouldn’t be needing those any more. “I think she’ll be happy Thursday night,” Valdez said.
Even through today, Zozobra is being built and decorated at an undisclosed warehouse in Santa Fe. But starting Thursday at 9 a.m., Santa Fe schoolchildren who have written their worries on paper, will show up at Fort Marcy Park and put those notes into Zozobra. The only place to get tickets to the event is at the Lensic Performing Arts box office. Gates will open at 3 p.m. The burning of Zozobra at dusk Thursday starts the annual Fiesta celebration in Santa Fe. 
Fiesta has been commemorated here since 1712 by proclamation of the then-governor of the province, Jose Chacon Medina Salazar y Villaseor, the marquis of Penuela. Organizers say it is the oldest civic celebration of its kind in North America. Zozobra has gone up in flames every year since Santa Fe artist Will Shuster created it in 1924. The Zozobra event is staged each year by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe. Kiwanis became officially involved in 1963. Zozobra raises money for local children by way of college scholarships, funds for nonprofit agencies who work with children and the Key clubs at Santa Fe High School and Santa Fe Indian School. Here’s a schedule of some of this weekend’s events. All these events are at the Santa Fe Plaza, except the burning of Zozobra, which will be at Fort Marcy Park: - Thursday — Burning of Zozobra, dusk.
- Friday — Arts and Crafts/Food Booths, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entertainment, 10 a.m. to midnight.
Official Opening of Fiesta, Noon. Entrada de Don Diego De Vargas, 2 p.m. - Saturday — Entertainment on the Plaza, 10 a.m. to midnight.
- Sunday — Solemn Procession, 9:30 a.m., Palace of the Governors.
Closing Ceremonies, 5:30 p.m. Contact Brad Buck at (505) 629-4408 or
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