Santa Catalina’s NYE Burning Woman Celebration was Fire.
The burning of a giant sized muñeca or effigy at midnight on the 31st on Estero Beach in Santa Catalina was a huge success. The women who created this year’s Burning Woman believe it was their best so far, and the biggest celebration to date.
This five meter tall wooden bird was Santa Catalina´s sixth edition of their unique new years eve tradition in which everyone is invited to write their intentions, gratitudes, dedications, or anything they would like to release from the previous year and tie their message onto Burning Woman to go up into the flames. This year their bird spirit carried an estimated two hundred messages with her and had approximately six hundred people in attendance of which about half were nationals, especially Panamanians coming from Santiago due to the completion of the new asphalt road, and the other half being foreigners from all over the world. There were even some Europeans who came to Santa Catalina specifically for this event.
“Burning Woman has become the main attraction,” Jennifer Castro Mejia de Bortoletti says about the annual Oasis New Year´s Eve beach party, and there is no doubt that the effigy´s twenty foot wall of flames with the fireworks exploding in the background all while on a tropical beachisan amazing experience for residents and visitors alike. Even after the fire died down, some people could be seen throwing more messages into the embers and several people sat around continuing to watch it burn under the moonlight as the Oasis party raged on inside.
“We’ve established our formula for her main construction and now every year it´s going to be less reinventing the wheel and more creativity,” said Lisa Lewis who has been fundamentally involved with Burning Woman´s structural design. These women are excited to see their project continue to grow, evolve, and improve. They are already sharing ideas for next year´s creation!
You can reach out or learn more on Instagram @burningwomanmujerardiente where they are beginning to document more of the history of the Burning Woman Project.
