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Up Helly Aa
A fire festival in Lerwick, Shetland, in which hundreds of costumed Vikings drag a replica longship through the town and burn it.
About Up Helly Aa
Up Helly Aa is held on the last Tuesday of January in Lerwick, Shetland. A squad of men led by the Guizer Jarl, dressed in Viking costume, drag a replica longship through the streets and burn it with torches. The festival is often presented as a survival of Norse fire rites, but in its present form it dates from the 1870s, and grew out of Victorian tar-barrel burning at Christmas and New Year. It has a strongly local meaning and takes months of preparation. Women were traditionally excluded from the main squad, though they have their own squads and take part in other ways, and the rule has been debated.
Entries tied to it
Also part of it, and being written: Up Helly Aa (The festival.), Yule (The old midwinter season it echoes.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Up Helly Aa" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.