Fire Festival - Up-Helly Aa
On our island, we hold an event at the start of the year, during February, that we call ‘Up-Helly Aa’ but is more commonly referred to as the Fire Festival. There is only one town on the island, which holds the most famous fire festival on the island, but there are various other areas that host the event too, but on different dates. The main idea is that all the men on the island dress up as vikings and are split into different squads, with the main one being the Jarl squad, and march around the streets of the town holding huge meter long torches as they parade through the streets, singing various old chants and translated Norse songs. All the outfits are handmade throughout the year, and a huge Viking longship called the ‘Galley’ is constructed by the Jarl squad. This ship is mounted on wheels, and is pulled along with the procession before they all congregate in the main park at the centre of town, and they all sing one final song, cheer for the Jarl and then throw the torches onto the ship. The families of the men in the Jarl squad are allowed to enter the park, but most of the others have to stay outside the fence, but you can see everything clearly. Once the ship has finally burned down, then everybody moves on to the halls, where food and drinks are available, and the other squads are dressed up in play outfits, where they will visit the halls around the town and preform their play, and have a few local dances, (similar to that of Ceilidh dancing, but slightly modified) and drink the night away. It’s a very nice tradition to start off the year, and gets everybody in a nice sense of union and community.
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