Up Helly Aa

Up Helly Aa refers to any of a variety of fire festivals held in Shetland, in Scotland, annually in the middle of winter to mark the end of the yule season. The festival involves a procession of up to a thousand guizers in Lerwick and considerably lower numbers in the more rural festivals, formed into squads who march through the town or village in a variety of themed costumes.

The current Lerwick celebration grew out of the older yule tradition of tar barrelling which took place at Christmas and New Year as well as Up Helly Aa. Squads of young men would drag barrels of burning tar through town on sledges, making mischief. After the abolition of tar barrelling around 1874-1880, permission was eventually obtained for torch processions. The first yule torch procession took place in 1876. The first torch celebration on Up Helly Aa day took place in 1881. The following year the torchlit procession was significantly enhanced and institutionalised through a request by a Lerwick civic body to hold another Up Helly Aa torch procession for the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh. The first galley was burned in 1889.

There is a main guizer who is dubbed the "Jarl". There is a committee which you must be part of for fifteen years before you can be a jarl, and only one person is elected to this committee each year.

The procession culminates in the torches being thrown into a replica Viking longship or galley. The event happens all over Shetland and is currently celebrated at 10 locations - Scalloway, Lerwick, Nesting & Girlsta, Uyeasound, Northmavine, Bressay, Cullivoe, Norwick, the South Mainland and Delting.

After the procession, the squads visit local halls (including schools, sports facilities and hotels), where private parties are held. At each hall, each squad performs its act, which may be a send-up of a popular TV show or film, a skit on local events, or singing or dancing, usually in flamboyant costume.

Due to the often-flamboyant costumes and the large quantity of males dressing up as females (Traditionally, the Capital festival does not permit women to partake in the squads) in the Lerwick festival, it has earned the joke name 'Transvestite Tuesday'. The photos below show a few examples of the festival's highlights.

The Lerwick Up Helly Aa

Up Helly Aa, the largest fire festival in Europe, has been celebrated as an end to the old Yule season in Shetland for over 100 years, though its exact origins are obscure.

Photographs taken at the Lerwick Up Helly Aa, 30th January 1973

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  1 - the Guizer Jarl

• The Guizer Jarl is the principal character in the celebration of Up Helly Aa, which takes place on the last Tuesday in January. Each Guiser Jarl takes the name of a figure in Norse legend. This one was Flokki of the Ravens.
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  2 - the Jarl Squad

• The Jarl Squad is made up of the Guizer Jarl's supporters. It is the principal of many squads, and the participants are called guisers.
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  3 - the Galley

• Each year a replica of a Viking galley is built for Up Helly Aa.
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  4 - the Procession

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  5 - the Circle Round the Galley

• When all the torchbearers arrive at the final resting spot of the galley, they form a circle round it and sing the traditional Up Helly Aa song.
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  6 - Setting Fire to the Galley

• After the singing of the Up Helly Aa song, the guisers throw their torches into the galley.
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  7 - the Burning Galley

See also

• Burning of the Clavie
• Olavsfestival
• Ólavsøka

External links

• Up Helly Aa: Official Website
• Up Helly Aa: Insideoot, a book by Vertigo
• Up Helly Aa: Shetlopedia.com - Up Helly Aa pages including a timeline of Lerwick Guizer Jarls, Up Helly-Aa songs, photos, and other local (non Lerwick) Up Helly-Aa's.