Santa Fe Volunteers Stuff 102-Year Tradition with Hope

Inside a Santa Fe workshop, volunteers are literally stuffing their problems into a giant puppet, and it's exactly what they need.

Zozobra, a towering 50-foot figure, is taking shape thanks to the Kiwanis Club and dozens of community volunteers preparing for the 102nd annual burning in September. The tradition invites anyone to write down their worries, shred the paper, and stuff it into the puppet's chicken wire frame.

"It takes a village to burn a monster, let alone to stuff one," one volunteer laughed as they twisted newspaper into tight balls. The process is simple but powerful: grab paper, ball it up, find a hole in the chicken wire, and push it through.

For first-time volunteer Alex, seeing the massive structure up close was stunning. "I was like, dang, how do they build this? Because this is pretty impressive," they said while working inside the puppet's belly.

The real magic happens in what gets stuffed inside. People write down anything bothering them: job stress, relationship troubles, health worries, or everyday frustrations. Those handwritten worries become part of Zozobra's physical form.

"You're able to take something that bothers you, scribble it down, shred it, stuff it inside his guts," one volunteer explained. "And then three months later, he'll be up in flames."

The Ripple Effect

What started as a local Santa Fe celebration has become a collective healing ritual for New Mexicans. The burning of Zozobra represents something deeper than just a fun event: it's permission to let go.

When September arrives and flames consume the towering figure, thousands will gather to watch their collective worries disappear. "All that negative energy, all that gloom, vanquished for a year," a volunteer said with a smile.

The tradition works because it's physical and communal. Writing down worries makes them tangible. Stuffing them into Zozobra alongside your neighbors' problems makes burden-bearing shared. Watching it all burn together creates a moment of collective release.

Building Zozobra takes months of volunteer effort, careful construction, and thousands of shredded worry notes. The Kiwanis Club coordinates the work, but the real builders are everyday people taking a few hours to help their community process pain through ritual.

Come September, Santa Fe will light up Zozobra as it has for 102 years, proving that sometimes the best way forward is to write it down, let it go, and watch it burn with friends.