I found this article while surfing today: Article . It's always the concern with people getting killed that puts a damper on such events. For example, Zozobra was always on Friday. After the burn, everyone would pour into the Santa Fe plaza for music, drinks, dancing, and the occasional stabbing or gang fight. It was normal, but the city fathers or whoever didn't like the headlines "Five in hospital after brutal stabbing on Plaza!" So, in order to keep the gang kids from causing any more bad publicity, they moved Zozobra to Thursday night. Of course, Thursday. The kids all had to be at school the next day, so they couldn't stay out late and create such troublesome news flashes. Now, only those meddling kids stay out and party ‘tell late once old man gloom's ashes have returned to the earth.
I was emotionally crushed the first time I celebrated Zozobra on a Thursday. I had such good memories of friends and crowds all packed together and having a good time screaming at the top of their lungs
“Burn you mudderfudger! Burn!”
and then on down to the plaza. It was all nines, 9-9-99, when I saw the tragic effects of the Thursday embargo - the place was empty, except for the gang kinds...
I suppose I should be happy about those folks in the desert. I gotta say, I do love to watch stuff burn, almost as much as I love to burn it myself!
Prague's Ninth Anual Zozobra - This Thursday at 9pm. Parukarka.
...fuego