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Damien Daville, Producer
LA Judge, Editor


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Burnin’ & Chunkin’– Rites of Fall

The changing of the seasons always produces a great deal of opportunity to enjoy some excellent outdoor energy. I recommend adding two events to your seasonal roadtrip schedule. One in the east, the other in the southwest, each producing megatons of fun exciting energy.

Burning of Zozobra
http://www.zozobra.com/index.html
First weekend after Labor Day
Santa Fe, NM

What do you do to drive away the misery that befallen your life during the year? Purge them with ritual and fire of course. Once every fall, people in and around Santa Fe gather to do just that and burn their troubles in Zozobra. In 1924 artist Will Shuster created Zozobra – Old Man Gloom based on centuries old regional legends. Zozobra is a giant animated wooden and cloth marionette that waves its arms and growls ominously at the approach of its fate. Traditionally he is stuffed with papers representing the less pleasant things that have transpired during the year. Copies of Arrest records, divorce papers, judgments, mortgage papers and more find their way to the “gloom box” and a stuffed into Zozobra. As twilight turns to dusk a fire dancer appears and the crowd of 20,000+ chants “burn him”. As the energy of the crowd reaches a climax crescendo, the fire dancer ignites the 40+ foot effigy and it explodes into flames and fireworks. Man what a way to start a party!! As Zozobra burns away your troubles, the traditional fiesta season starts with a celebration now sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club. Burn Zozobra burn.

On the website explore the gallery and history sections. They will give you a great overview of this unique local tradition. There is nothing quite the energy of the burning of Old Man Gloom and I highly recommend that you find a way to make your way there and burn your troubles away.

World Championship Punkin Chunkin Championships
http://www.punkinchunkin.com/main.htm
First weekend after Halloween
Millsboro, DE

Halloween has come and gone. The pumpkins have been carved or pied. So what do you do with 8 -10 lbs of leftover rotting fruit? Throw it of course!! I am not talking a casual backyard game of pumpkin toss. I’m talking air cannons and catapults with names like Great Emancipator and Siege Beast capable of tossing a pumpkin 4224 feet! (As a reference point, a mile equals 5280 ft or about 1.69 km.) So that pumpkin leaves one mighty big crater when it goes splat.

On the Punkin’ Chunkin’ website do not doddle around with events schedules, rules of chunkin’ or the various cook-off sections. Save them for later. Head straight for the galley section and get a feel for the mammoth size and scale of these punkin’ chunkers. Tune up your Windows Media Player or Real Player and feel the power of these babies turn punkin’s into paste via some snipettes of live action video. Like any good modern festival, this one started small over a bragging’ rights bet and has grown exponentially every year. Come yearly – stay late – bring a chair – a cooler – a silly punkin’ hat and your pick’um up truck. This is a no holds barred family event with plenty of fun each day of all. The festival’s end is a free for all chunk off – where the big guns fire at will, and punkin’ after punkin’ goes splat. Oh yea! Life just doesn’t get any better than this!

Until next month.
LA. Judge / nodeaf

For Questions, please contact the VC Magazine Staff at VCMagazine_Staff@yahoogroups.com

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