Anyone who’s been in New Mexico for a while knows about the burning of Zozobra, the effigy portraying gloom and doom that is torched every year around Labor Day during the Santa Fe Fiesta.
The burning of Zozbra began in 1924 when Santa Fe artist Will Shuster decided to have a private Fiesta party in which the ceremonial burning of an effigy would rid his guests of any chance of bad luck in the coming year. Schuster and a friend came up with the word Zozobra for the effigy, which is based on the Spanish verb Zozobrar, meaning “to worry.” The roots of the ceremony can be traced back to Easter Holy Week traditions in some Native American communities of Arizona and Mexico, in which an effigy of Judas was led around villages on a donkey and ultimately set on fire.
I once interviewed legendary State Historian Myra Ellen Jenkins about the New Mexico tradition and enjoyed her colorful description of such events in the state’s past.
“There were communities that would goof around with a ceremony every year and set little statues on fire to make sure there was good luck from the coming year,” I think I recall her telling me. “And I think they had some libations with the ceremony which made them feel even more optimistic about the future.”
The burning of Zozobra — now a 50-foot tall effigy that isset on fire every year around Labor Day at Santa Fe’s Fort Marcy Park — now has a new twist.
The cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque announced this week that they have authorized construction of a 135-foot tall hot air balloon in the shape of Zozobra that will fly this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Naturally, in keeping with tradition, I wondered whether the balloon will be set on fire after each flight — an expensive proposition given that the balloon is estimated to cost about $300,000 to construct. And of course, hot air balloons already have fires on board to heat air inside them and make them buoyant, so torching them immediately upon landing would be easy.
This made me think about a Federal Aviation Administration regulation, Part 830.5, which defines what constitutes an aircraft incident or accident which must be immediately reported to the National Transportation Safety Board.
It says the operator of an aircraft must notify NTSB in the event of several occurrences, including: “(4) in-flight fire,” and “(5) Aircraft collision in flight.”
Well, duh, you kind of have to have an in-flight fire to keep a hot air balloon aloft. And if you’ve even seen the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, you’ll frequently notice balloons gently bumping into eachother during mass ascensions, which I guess counts as an “in-flight collision.”
In my experience in flying a hot air balloon, I’ve always had an “in-flight fire” and I’ve had numerous occasions at Fiesta where other balloons bumped into me or I bumped into them during a flight without any consequences. I’ve never reported any of these incidents to the NTSB — maybe I should have.
This Labor Day weekend, maybe I should burn a miniature version of Zozobra so I won’t have to worry about reporting myself to the feds.
aero-cordero.com 