Annual Viking Fire Festival Held on Scotlands Shetland Islands

Annual Viking Fire Festival Held on Scotland s Shetland Islands The annual Vikinginspired fire festival of Up Helly Aa, described by organizers as a northern Mardi Gras, was held in the town of Lerwick in Scotlands Shetland Islands on Tuesday, January 30. The festival involves a large torchlit procession led by a Guizer Jarl, or Chief Viking, and a Jarl Squad, which lights the galley by throwing torches into it. The present form of Up Helly Aa is about 140 years old, but the traditions of the festival, including a torchlit procession and galley burning, go back 12 centuries or more and are linked to ancient Norse rituals marking the Suns return after winter, according to Promote Shetland, which helped organize the event. Before the 19th century, the event was often riotous and law enforcement was often summoned to curb triggerhappy drunks firing guns in the air or to stop people dragging a blazing tar barrel through the streets, they said. Local versions of the festival wo