Lerwick Up Helly-Aa
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia that anyone can edit
| Lerwick Up Helly-Aa 2008 |
The Lerwick Up Helly-Aa fire festival in Shetland is one of the most unique festivals in the world. The festival takes place on the last Tuesday of January. The festival builds up throughout the entire year, as a large Viking longship is created and torches are made for the procession. The event is world famous and attracts thousands of tourists every year. There are many hundreds of Guizers involved and the festival officially begins on the morning of the last Tuesday as the Jarl Squad goes around the town and throughout the schools, hospitals and nursing homes, making speeches and singing Up Helly-Aa songs.
The Jarl is the chief guizer who represents a particular figure in Viking history and his longship, or galley, is given a Norse name. A new man is Guizer Jarl every year having risen to the top of the Up-Helly-Aa Committee list, and is thereafter known as Ex-Jarl. Each year a new, young member is selected to serve on the committee.
At 7.30 p.m. the procession begins. This involves the hundreds of guizers--men in distinctive groups called squads--and the Jarl's Squad marching around a prescribed route along with the Galley, and carrying large burning torches. The festival reaches its peak when the Galley enters a local park and is circled by the Guizers until all the torch-carrying guizers surround the Galley. The Guizer Jarl then makes a short speech from inside the Galley and joins the guizers and crowds in a traditional Up Helly-Aa song before exiting the Galley. The guizers then wait for their cue, a signaling firework, which prompts the guizers to throw their torches into the galley, and they sing another traditional Up Helly-Aa song while they watch the galley burn fiercely.
After the burning of the Galley, the squads all head back to their squad huts and begin to get ready to go out to the halls. The squads circulate the halls where they show off their costumes, sing songs or perform satirical skits based on topical news events. In times past, the squads would travel on foot, but buses are the preferred method of transportation these days. People who are not guizing--women, older men and children--spend the night in the halls waiting to be entertained by the guizers. Musicians are in every hall, but each squad has one or two musicians of their own who join in with the resident bands and play for the inevitable dancing. Younger men, usually sons of squad members, who carry the musical instruments are known as "fiddle-box carriers."
In the halls, non-alcoholic refreshments are provided for everyone--usually sandwiches and tea--served by volunteer hosts and hostesses who also ensure that events go smoothly.
The festivities continue into the early hours of the morning.
