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[[File:Guisers at Uyeasound Up Helly Aa - geograph.org.uk - 1706010.jpg|thumb|[[Mummers Play|Guizers]] at an Up Helly Aa celebration in [[Uyeasound]], [[Shetland Islands]], February 2010]]
[[File:Guisers at Uyeasound Up Helly Aa - geograph.org.uk - 1706010.jpg|thumb|[[Mummers Play|Guizers]] at an Up Helly Aa celebration in [[Uyeasound]], [[Shetland Islands]], February 2010]]
{{Culture of Scotland}}'''Up Helly Aa''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʌ|p|h|ɛ|l|i|ə}} {{respell|UP|hel-ee-ə}}) 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 in Scotland|yule]] season. The festival involves a procession of up to a thousand [[Mummers Play|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.
{{Culture of Scotland}}'''Up Helly Aa''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʌ|p|h|ɛ|l|i|ə}} {{respell|UP|hel-ee-ə}}) 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 in Scotland|yule]] season. The festival involves a procession of up to a thousand [[Mummers Play|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


==Origins==
==Origins==

Revision as of 21:14, 7 December 2015

Guizers at an Up Helly Aa celebration in Uyeasound, Shetland Islands, February 2010

Up Helly Aa (/ˈʌphɛliə/ UP-hel-ee-ə) 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

Origins

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 Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.[1] [2] The first galley was introduced and burned in 1889.[3]

The modern event

There is a main guizer who is dubbed the "Jarl". There is a committee which a person must be part of for 15 years before one 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 ten locations – Scalloway, Lerwick, Nesting and 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.

Meaning

According to John Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1818),[4] up is used in the sense of something being at an end, and derives from the Old Norse word uppi which is still used in Faroese and Icelandic, while helly refers to a holy day or festival. The Scottish National Dictionary defines helly, probably derived from the Old Norse helgr (helgi in the dative and accusative case, meaning a holiday or festival), as "[a] series of festive days, esp. the period in which Christmas festivities are held from 25th Dec. to 5th Jan.",[5] while aa may represent a', meaning "all".[6]

The Lerwick Up Helly Aa

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

See also

References

  1. ^ Callum G. Brown, Up-helly-aa: Custom, Culture, and Community in Shetland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), ISBN 1901341070, pp. 126-139.
  2. ^ "It cost £4,940 15/6d to build, now monument to civic splendour is 125". The Shetland Times. 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
  3. ^ "The Galley". Up Helly Aa. NB Communication. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  4. ^ John Jamieson (1818), "upp-helli-a'", An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language; in which the Words are Explained in their Different Senses, Authorized by the Names of the Writers by whom they are Used, or the Titles of the Works in which they Occur, and Deduced from their Originals, Edinburgh: Printed for A. Constable and Co., and A. Jameson by Abernethy & Walker, OCLC 4363471.
  5. ^ William Grant, ed. ([1931–1975]), "helly", The Scottish National Dictionary, Designed Partly on Regional Lines and Partly on Historical Principles, and Containing All the Scottish Words Known to be in Use or to have been in Use since c. 1700, vol. 5, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, OCLC 780478 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link), 10 vols., as reproduced in Victor Skretkowicz; Susan Rennie; William A. Craigie, eds. (2004–), Dictionary of the Scots Language = Dictionar o the Scots Leid, Dundee: University of Dundee, OCLC 57069714 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link).
  6. ^ "uphalie-", Scottish National Dictionary, reproduced in the Dictionary of the Scots Language.