Little kids, drunken adolescents and other spellbound adults screeched these words in unison while watching fire dancers encircle the Zozobra, Santa Fe's 49-foot effigy that undergoes a ritual burning every year at the start of the fiesta season.

My colleague Cally and I were on a reporting trip in New Mexico when we decided to watch the burning of the Zozobra, also known as "Old Man Gloom." Cally had vague memories of attending Zozobra as a child when she spent her summers in New Mexico, and I figured we couldn't miss the event while we were there.

I had no idea how popular (or creepy) it would be. The Zozobra, as it turns out, is a figure in Santa Fe more revered than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny (he even has a Twitter account). His supposed ability to erase all of your gloomy thoughts and help you start anew draws a crowd of more than 40,000 each year. 

As little children dressed in white robes -- nicknamed "the Gloomies" -- chanted and pranced around the ominous-looking figure, I leaned over to Cally and said, "This is actually kind of scary." Her four-year old cousin agreed with me and watched the entire performance with his hands over his ears and a completely overwhelmed look on his face.

"Yeah, but isn't there something really exciting about watching destruction?" Cally responded.

And there was. When Old Man Gloom finally caught fire from inside his head, the crowd went wild. Fireworks went off and I even felt a sense of satisfaction when, in a matter of seconds, Zozobra was reduced to a pile of ash. 

Afterward, as people made their way back to their cars or to the bars, there did seem to be something different in the air. People shouted "Viva la Fiesta" to one another in the street, climbed trees, and spontaneously burst into song. 

I guess Old Man Gloom did his job. Until next year.