What is Up Helly Aa?

Up Helly Aa (literally "Up Holy All") can refer to any of twelve fire festivals held annually from January to March in Shetland, Scotland, to mark the end of the yule season. Each festival involves a torchlit procession by squads of costumed participants (known as guizers) that culminates in the burning of Viking galley. The main festival held in Lerwick, Shetland's capital, involves a procession of up to a thousand guizers who march through the streets of Lerwick on the last Tuesday in January. The other rural festivals (known as the 'country' Up Helly Aas) see lower numbers of participants in accordance with their lower populations.

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. Squads of young men would drag barrels of burning tar through town on sledges, making mischief. Concern over public safety and levels of drunkenness led to a change in the celebrations and saw them drawing inspiration from the islands' Viking history. After the abolition of tar barrelling around 1874–1880, 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.