Gloomy skies didn’t keep the crowds away from Santa Fe’s annual burning of Zozobra, also known as Old Man Gloom.

  “I’ve been coming to Zozobra since I was four,” says native Santa Fean and security officer Kenny Garcia. Since then, “it has lost its theme and become like a rock concert.” “It just got out of control,” says Diego Baca, whose family follows Zozobra religiously. “They weren’t playing New Mexico music, there was a lot of commercialized stuff.” Last year, additional complaints included the $20 ticket price and the tedious wait for Zozo to burn. This year, though they showed up with concerns from the previous year, Garcia and Baca shared a hope for Zozo’s 2013 make over. For those of you who don’t know, Zozobra was created by William Shuster in 1924 as a pagan tribute. With the building and burning of the ugly old man, who held glooms in his white garments, Shuster hoped to integrate the art community into the Roman Catholic celebrations. His very first Zozoba was burned in his back yard and later, when the event was big enough, the city brought him to Fort Marcy Park as the official and appropriate kick off to fiestas, which itself dates back to Don Diego de Vargas’ re-conquering of the city from Pueblo Indians. In many ways, stuffing the 50-foot puppet with the written glooms of the city, burning it, then celebrating with a weekend of fiestas, is Santa Fe’s very own New Year celebration. “It’s an amazing ritual,” says University of New Mexico freshman Katrina Pederson, previous member of Santa Fe High Key Club. “After Zozobra and fiestas, everyone calms down and is ready for a new year.” Kiwanis, the organization which orchestrates the event, was also ready for a new year after the complaints of the 2012 burn. They got to work right away. “The planning started the...