New Year’s Eve is a time to reflect and a time to look towards the New Year with hope of peace and prosperity for all. Here at the Inn of the Governors, we want to thank each and every one of our guests who have shared the past year with us. Our restaurant, Del Charro, continues to be a welcome respite to travelers and locals, alike and all of our staff thank you for your continued patronage.
This year we will say Adios to the past year at the Second Annual New Year’s Eve on the Santa Fe Plaza. The evening is a family-friendly event and includes three New Mexico favorites playing music on the Bandstand. There’s also a warming tent with hot chocolate and biscochitos, courtesy of the Santa Fe Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and you are invited to share your hopes and dreams on the memorial banner provided by our local Kiwanis Club. We can’t wait to cozy up to those piñon bonfires ringed around the Plaza to scent the air with an unmistakable New Mexico fragrance!
You’ll have plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely dinner in Del Charro since festivities begin at 8:45 p.m. Then it’s just a two block walk to the plaza where local guitar hero and native Santa Fean, Alex Maryol kicks off the night on the bandstand stage, followed by Amado and Buddy Abeyta of Sol Fire taking up the beat. The bandstand revs the revelers up with hot rhythms from Nosotros until the midnight hour when Mayor Javier Gonzales gathers everyone together to say Bienvenidos to the New Year in Santa Fe.
Once Mayor Gonzales begins the countdown, Santa Fe welcomes the New Year by raising a Zia, the unique symbol that decorates our state flag. This Native American icon, a circle with four sets of four shafts radiating from the center, is said to symbolize the Circle of Life: The four compass directions (north, south, east, west); four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter); four times of day (morning, noon, evening, night); four stages of life (childhood, youth, middle age, elderhood); and four sacred aspects (strong body, clear mind, pure spirit, devotion to the well-being of others). Raising the Zia was a first at 2015’s New Years Eve on the Plaza, and this year’s Zia icon is a brand-new surprise.
This year offers the addition of a bright fireworks display at midnight. The fireworks will take place near the Inn and will last for a short time. For those room guests who may want to forgo the plaza events but want to see the fireworks, we will have hot chocolate in our lobby beginning at 11pm. Enjoy a hot chocolate and then, at midnight, step out into our parking lot to see the fireworks display.
We wish you all a happy new year. Safe travels from the Inn of the Governors & Del Charro staff.
