Zozobra

( burning ritual )


Ethnographic Field Recording  :  Raw Audio


Important :  Please do not listen to this recording if you
are high or in an altered state of consciousness.
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Recorded :   September 9, 1988
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US

8 minutes  12 seconds           7. 5 Mb            .mp3

Click just below for audio.


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Zozobra is an imposing 51 foot tall male effigy puppet who wears a long dress, is gaudily lipsticked and is the personification of repressed weirdness.  His public burning has become an annual tradition in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he is psychologically called "Old Man Gloom".  Every September there is a night when the townspeople gather in a field to ritually curse him, taunt him, burn him up and blow off his head with small explosives.  In this 8 minute 12 second recording you can hear Zozobra moan and groan in pain as he is tortured by the fire and the crowd cheers "Burn him! Burn him!"  in an ascending and cathartic frenzy.

Recordist :  Thomas Ashcraft


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Photo courtesy Chad Lundgren
http://www.zenhaiku.com