On a Christmas Eve in the 1840s, a multitude of disguised young men sled down the streets of the port of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands of northern Scotland dragging barrels of lit tar. Soon, the ritual, which came to be known as ‘Antonsmas’, became increasingly dangerous and left behind a trail of burning public property. The seemingly exhilarating practice continued annually until the abolition of tar-barrelling in 1874. The new law convinced the men that changes were in order. Beginning to call the event ‘Up Helly Aa’ (pronounced /up-hel-ee-a/), they introduced more elaborate methods of dressing up (known as ‘guizing’), and brought in long torchlight processions and the burning of ships at the culmination of the march. Thus was born Europe’s largest fire festival.
Guizer Jarl and the squad
Held in modern times at the culmination of Christmas festivities, the Up Helly Aa begins early in the day with the start of the march by the Jarl Squad (pronounced /yaarl/), a group of men dressed as Vikings led by their chief, the Guizer Jarl, who channels a Viking commander. The squad strides first to the Lerwick branch of the Royal British Legion, a charity for British Armed Forces veterans, and continues on to the Lerwick Market Cross where they take a look at the Bill, an edict that issues instructions for the guizers of the year’s celebrations.
Torchlit processions during Up Helly Aa | Wikimedia Commons
The march along the promenade takes the Jarls to the Lerwick Town Hall where they stop for toasts and a civic reception. At around the third hour of the noon, the Jarl squad pays a visit to the Shetland Museum to interact with the general public and showcase their Viking armours. Later, the junior and senior Guizer Jarls shepherd two separate processions. The Guizer Jarl leads the whole squad to a site where a model of an ancient Viking galley, the design of which is kept secret until the day of the festival, is set ablaze. The Junior Guizer Jarl’s march ends soon after with the burning of a smaller galley. The public are not permitted to watch the burning of the galleys.
Celebrations rage on all through the night with skits, dances, drinks and more. Procès-verbaux from 1824 depict “shouting, bawling, fiddling, fifeing, drinking, fighting” as the usual pastimes.
The Guizer Jarl is the elected chief of the Jarl Squad. For a guizer to be eligible for election, he must have been a member of the Up Helly Aa Committee for at least 15 years, must be proposed and seconded by guizers, and then take part in a poll. The Jarl’s Viking garb, first adopted in 1906 is purported to be the most imposing of all the guizers. The current design of the costume was introduced in the 1930s, with the silver helmet being replaced by a chromium-plated one and a new axe and dagger along with a new shield. The suit with the same 1930s design has been passed down from one Jarl to another to this very year.
The Jarl Squad may vary in size from 50 to 70, while normal Guizer Squads contain around 16 to 35 members. The guizer suits are made by the guizers themselves each year and are required to be sui generis. Along with the suit, each year a new shield along with swords, daggers, spears, axes, crossbows, etc. are to be constructed.
Burning of ships at the end of the celebrations | Wikimedia Commons
Up Helly Aa in 2019
The Up Helly Aa takes place Tuesday, on the 29th of January in 2019.
Tourists intending on visiting Lerwick must plan their trips right away as in Shetland, the Up Helly Aa is a bigger deal than Christmas. This means, Shetland will witness an all year high in visitors. As the islands don’t receive much tourists apart from the Up Helly Aa, hotels and motels are scarce. The best and readily available accommodations are Airbnbs.
Visitors arriving by vehicles must be sure to park their cars away from the town squares and the routes of the processions.
The Jarl Squads commence their march at 9 in the morning and stop at the Bressay Ferry Terminal at around 10 to pose for photos with the public. This is probably the best time to get a few clicks with the men in all their Viking glory. The squads also drop by two primary schools, a hospital and an old age home, all in Lerwick. Torchlight processions begin around 7-7:30 pm at the Lerwick Town Hall. The best views are at high points in the town near the King Harold and St Olaf Streets.
Parties in the town go all night from 9 pm and don’t end until about 8 am; party-goers are mostly guizers dressed in a wide variety of get-ups, akin to a Halloween party. Tourists and visitors should expect major roads to be closed when driving out of Lerwick.
