Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 24 on 05/01/2006.

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Festival of fire

The Up Helly Aa Festival makes for one of the most visually stunning events on the planet. Maggie Stanfield went along

What on earth is this? I have watched aghast the fire-throwing delinquents setting ablaze a beautiful and elaborately decorated Viking longship, and gazed in awe as several hundred pyromaniacs torched Lerwick as crowds of spectators cheered them on.

What has the world come to when the far northern tip of Scotland is alight with such criminal activity? You certainly wouldn’t see this kind of thing in Edinburgh.

Those of you familiar with the Up Helly Aa festival, held on the last Tuesday of January each year (Old Yule) in Shetland’s main town of Lerwick, will have recognised this odd scenario, but for this Irish blow-in, it was a bizarre juxtaposition of Vikings, 19th century Guizers, Jarls and Skekklers (the early Guizers) alongside 1950s Kirk tea dances that had opened their doors to crowds of students on Rag day.

On Up Helly Aa morning, a 10-foot high, elaborately decorated proclamation, ‘The Bill,’ is placed at the Market Cross in central Lerwick.

It’s a topical blend of local humour, digs at the establishment, gossip and ancient rites, and it gives the Guizer Jarl the freedom of the town for the day.

Next the Jarl Squad, with Guizer Jarl, Peter Fraser for 2005, at the helm makes its impressive public appearance. Fifty or so men of all ages have spent most of the previous year secretly assembling their arrays of crushed royal blue velvet, deer hides, ravens’ wings and sheepskin. The Guizer decides upon his squad’s colours. There’s no democracy here – oh, and no women .....

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By Maggie Stanfield

Section : Scottish Events

Page number : 52