Up Helly Aa

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Up Helly Aa
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I was doing research on this and I would enjoy seeing people's opinion on this Festival and if anyone here on this site as heard of it or been apart of it.

I know for a fact that in many regions that uphold fire festivals and such but this festival is new to me and so I did some research and came up with the following information.

This festival is done during the middle of winter on the last tuesday of the first month. It usually is marked as the end of the Yule season as well as the celbration of the Vikings arrival to Scotland.

The festival involves a procession of up to a thousand quizers 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. After the abolition of tar barrelling, 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, but it is only the Lerwick galley which is not sent seaward. Everywhere else, the galley is sent seabound, in an echo of legendary Viking sea burials.

After the procession, the squads visit local halls, 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.
Thank you for reading.

Site of reference:

http://www.uphellyaa.org/

http://celteros.tumblr.com/post/20273284208/up-helly-aa-celebrates-shetland-viking-history

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