Zozobra isn't the only pagan holiday that plays with fire.
Pack up your gloom. Stow your angst. And, while you're at it, go ahead and grab those bankruptcy papers.
It's time for Zozobra.
Thousands will flock to Fort Marcy Park on Thursday, Sept. 7 for the annual incineration of the 50-foot puppet
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otherwise known as Old Man Gloom, just as thousands more have done in the more than 80 years since creator Will Schuster set the first Zozobra ablaze.
But Zozobra has also long since expanded beyond the idiosyncrasies of the City Different. In fact, Zozobra has inspired a host of similar events from Burning Man to the burning of Kokooee (a Mexican bogeyman) in Albuquerque during the Festival de Otoño.
"I definitely see it as life imitating art," says event producer Ray Valdez. "We're complimented that the idea of Zozobra has been perpetuated so much, but people have been burning effigies for at least 4,000 years. We weren't the first and we won't be the last."
Here are a handful of other fiery pagan holidays that can trace their inspiration back to Old Man Gloom:
Burning Man
When: Labor Day weekend (give or take a couple of days).
Where: Black Rock Desert, Nev.
What: Burning Man is the mother ship above which some of the world's biggest freaks let their flags fly. The event started with a handful of hippies in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco before relocating and drawing upward of 25,000 people to the Middle of Nowhere, Nevada. Event founders Larry Harvey and Jerry James are coy about their inspiration for Burning Man, but have acknowledged finding inspiration after watching a certain New Mexico effigy burn to the ground.
Burnin' Bush
When: Fourth of July weekend.
Where: Black Rock Desert, Nev.
What: Burnin' Bush was created by founder Lisa Nigro's desire to unveil a gender-specific counterpart to Burning Man. The event pays homage to Brigid, purportedly the Goddess of Hearth Fire, and draws a motley crew of artists, welders and people who just like to get naked, drink beer and set shit on fire.
Burning Flipside
When: Memorial Day weekend.
Where: Austin, Tex.
What: The 2006 event's theme was "Fall from Grace" and encouraged participants to re-create their own Eden by, among other things, "wearing leopard print and fig leaves, or nothing at all!" Flipizens, as event participants are called in the land of "Pyropolis," participate in this social experiment of "radical self-reliance" in a garden of earthly delights created in the hills outside Austin.
Flipside burns its own effigy to get rid of such nasty things as "fears, doubts, inhibitions" and "karmic debts." But it also allows the fine citizens of Pyropolis to singe sculptures on four different burn platforms provided the sculptures are created with a 3-inch hole on which to mount a flamethrower.
Dragonfest
When: Mid-August.
Where: In the mountains near Bailey, Colo.
What: Dragonfest is one of a slew of nationally known neo-pagan events (such as the Pagan Festival in California, the Covenant of the Goddess Merry Meet in Florida and the High in the Pines Faire in Arizona) dotting the social calendar of your neighborhood Wiccan.
More than 1,000 people flock annually to this gathering of spiritual exploration highlighted by music, merchants and several official fire circles with themes like "Inspiration," "Dedication" and "Invocation."
Firefly
When: July Fourth weekend.
Where: In the woods of northern Vermont.
What: A collection of people who took Jim Morrison literally when he said, "C'mon, baby, light my fire." Like that freak fest in Nevada, Firefly was born from the cracked minds of an art collective. Unlike Burning Man, everything about Firefly revolves around, well, fire. The semi-secretive gathering-the exact location is divulged only to ticket holders-features fire spinning, fire sculpture, burning art and various performances involving flames.
Playa del Fuego
When: Columbus Day weekend.
Where: Odessa, Del.
What: The organizers of Playa del Fuego began their "beach burns" in 1998 as an East Coast version of Burning Man with all the hedonism but a better location. Instead of being stuck in, say, the Black Rock Desert, Playa participants first began their beachfront bacchanal on Assateague Island off the Maryland coast and have since relocated to private land on the Atlantic shores of Delaware. Playa boasts the same costumes, nudity, art and debauchery as Burning Man, except the event happens twice a year and inexplicably culminates with the burning of a pony effigy.
Wickerman Festival
When: Third weekend in July.
Where: East Kirkcarswell Farm, Scotland.
Why: The one. The only. The original.
Well, not quite. This alternative music festival in Scotland has only been around since 2002. But the burning of the Wicker Man itself dates back 4,000 years to the ancient Druids. The same folks who (allegedly) brought you Stonehenge purportedly burned wicker statues as part of human sacrifice rituals.
Wicker Man has since become a symbol at neo-pagan festivities (minus, in most cases, the human sacrifices) the world over. It has also inspired a cult 1973 film (
The Wicker Man
) and the upcoming Nicholas Cage remake, as well as bands like Iron Maiden ("The Wicker Man") and Pulp ("Wickerman"). Not to mention Will Schuster, the creator of Zozobra.
