Up Helly Aa 2023

Today is Up Helly Aa, and to give you a flavour of the event, I'm sharing a video from last year's event (2023). This includes both the main procession and burning, as well as the Junior procession and burning.
Up Helly Aa’s roots can be found in the 19th-century tradition of ‘tar-barrelling’, a practice which saw the town’s young men rolling burning barrels of tar through the narrow streets of Lerwick. This was banned in 1874 as it was dangerous and caused damage to local properties and humiliated the law-enforcers who were often tricked by the rowdy youths and locked into an endless game of ‘cat-and-mouse’. It has been argued that following the Napoleonic Wars, the men returning had developed a taste for firearms and so began the tradition. In the past, Shetland followed the Julian calendar long after the rest of the world adopted the Gregorian calendar. Christmas was held on the 5th January, New Year on the 12th and Up Helly Aa (or Uphellia) was held 24 days after Aald Yule, on the 29th January. However, the act of tar-barrelling might occur on any of these occasions.
In 1824 a visiting Methodist missionary described the scenes he found in Lerwick at Christmas:
The whole town was in an uproar from 12 o’clock last night until late this night blowing of horns, beating of drums, tinkling of old tin kettles, firing of guns, shouting, bawling, fiddling, fifeing, drinking, fighting. This was the state of the town all night - the street was thronged with people, as any fair I ever saw in England.
This lawlessness was a real problem for law-enforcers and town governors. The taste for fiery uproar and defiance of the law seemed insatiable and, in 1874, with mounting concerns for safety, tar-barrelling was banned, and 1876 saw the first organised procession. This procession, and those that would follow and become the festival as we know it today, was held in a bid to satisfy the desire for festivities.
Today Up Helly Aa is the biggest organised festival of the year, involving a dedicated team of committee members who ensure that the festival runs smoothly and safely. The festivities last for 24 hours on the last Tuesday of January. It is a Viking inspired fire festival that attracts thousands of visitors every year. A torchlit procession, led by the Guizer Jarl (chief Viking) weaves its way around the streets of Lerwick with over 1,000 torch-bearers carrying burning torches. After the procession, the guizers (as participants are known) heave their burning torches into a replica Viking longship and sing the Norseman’s Home. The atmosphere during the procession is electric as the street lights are extinguished, and visitors throng the streets, jostling for the best view, and the town glows under the light of the burning torches. The smell of paraffin and smoke permeate everything, and the rousing cheers echo around the buildings into the night sky.
read the full blog on my blog: shetlandwithla...

[@ericrabinowitz6390]

What a lot of fun!