Up Helly Aa!
Island town ablaze with Viking torches as fire festival
celebrates Norse past
A Shetland town was lit up by the flaming torches of hundreds of
"Vikings" in Europe's biggest fire festival last night.
Up Helly Aa is held on the last Tuesday of January every year in
Lerwick, Shetland, to celebrate the Norse past of the islands.
Nearly a thousand local men, dressed as Viking warriors in
winged helmets, body armour and sheepskin cloaks, paraded through
the town in squads, led by the Guizer Jarl.
Later in the evening, when given the signal by a special
firework, all the street lights were switched off and the guizers
lit their torches. The men made their way in a glowing procession
to a giant long boat, or galley, which they set on fire by hurling
their flaming torches into its hull.
Afterwards, each Viking squad treated locals and tourists to an
act or a dance in the halls of Lerwick. Dancing and feasting went
on until eight o'clock this morning! The day after Up Helly Aa is
always a public holiday in Shetland to let everyone recover.
Preparations for the festival take all winter. It takes three
months to build the galley, while a team of torch boys spend two
evenings a week making the hundreds of torches needed.
Shetland and Orkney were ruled by the Norse for around 500 years
until 1468.
Up Helly Aa is listed by the guide book Lonely Planet as one of
the world's 1000 ultimate sights.
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Up Helly Aa!
Viking gangs usher in the light of spring with beards
and burnings
It all begins with the beard. Much like Shetland's landscape,
the beard - an integral part of the Viking image - is best left
untouched; designer tweaking, flicking and shaving is
ill-advised.
Months before the Up Helly Aa festival, farmers, crofters,
fishermen, engineers, postmen and office workers can be seen going
about their everyday jobs with a gigantic mass of face-fuzz. For
younger participants, excusal from beard growing can be
negotiated.
The Jarl squad is a brazen gang of community stalwarts at the
centre of the big day's festivities. Their duties are numerous -
visiting schools and care centres, leading a torchlight procession,
touring community halls. Oh, and they also find time to burn a
Viking longship.
Up-Helly-Aa is an intriguing phenomenon that, because of its
links to Shetland's Norse past, may seem an ancient celebration,
but it didn't exist until the late 19th century. It is a
celebration of the re-emergence of light as winter slips away, and
is enjoyed in 10 regions of the islands over January, February and
March. The capital Lerwick's event in January is the best
known.
The day is all about community. Across the land, young, sparkly
eyes - and weathered ones too -- watch with amusement, excitement
and pride as a bunch of men in furry boots traipse around villages.
There is, however, no pillaging and no burning -- yet.
The Jarl squad's procession takes in the two Lerwick primary
schools. For most children, seeing a gang of axe-wielding Vikings
take over their school and bellow out throaty songs may be a little
unsettling, but for Shetland children, it is normal, a part of the
school calendar. At the very least, it means they get to enjoy some
sneaky extracurricular activity as they stray out of the
classroom.
The torch procession is the most memorable part of the day. Led
by the Guizer Jarl, the torchbearers snake towards the galley.
Debris is chucked around in the wind like confetti before the
galley is filled with the flaming sticks and pushed out into the
water in the tradition of Norse funerals. The dim winter is laid to
rest and spring revived once more.
Everyone now heads to the halls, where the proper knees-ups take
place. Squads perform a range of acts, from a parody of Simon
Cowell in an X Factor sketch, to dancing ducks, to skits based on
current affairs, which last year included one based on the Chilean
miners!
As the day ends and the morning draws in, it is clear that this
Up-Helly-Aa celebration is not about light, Vikings or fire. The
novelty of masquerading as Vikings wears off, but the triumphant
sense of community and togetherness of these people endures. The
Up-Helly-Aa Song contains the stirring lines; "From grand old
Viking centuries Up-Helly-Aa has come / The waves are rolling
on."
Much like the waves that crash off Shetland's rocky coastline,
it seems the spirit of Up-Helly-Aa will roll on and on.
Click
here to have a go at our Up Helly Aa quiz
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suggestions
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